Inspiration Information

Great album. Grooves from start to finish.

I enjoyed this but think it’s a grower. A few more listens and I could see myself bumping it up a star.

Who the fuck is Shuggie Otis? Never heard of 'im. This album is what I might expect to hear if I was tied up in a hotel lobby for 55 mins and 54 seconds. Background music. Kinda mello jazzy funk fusion. Some tracks too long. Some tracks ironically too short! Some tracks fade out in weird places. Some tracks just a fucking mess. I really needed to be doing something else when this is on because it struggled to hold my attention. Not awful but I can live without it. I know now why I’ve never heard of Shuggie Otis. Not quite bad enough for a 1 though.
1½

I enjoyed this album. It may not be mind-blowing in any sense but it is a solid funky jazz record and I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up and play it again. I had only heard a couple song from Shuggie Otis but liked what I heard so it was nice to see this pop up today. This is another album that falls in the category of 'play it in the background while doing other things' and it would make a perfect soundtrack for a Saturday morning. 3.5/5 but going to round down because it's just a little to generic funk to round up.

I didn't know anything about this artist or this album. I liked it a lot, a solid 4 from me - my evaluations being as subjective as possible; if an album and/or an artist makes me feel good, then I'm good ;-)

Enjoyable but somehow still missing something.

Chilled out soul music that is just a little boring. It feels like the album wants to go somewhere but it doesn’t quite get there. In short this album is dull.

Favourite song:
Least favourite:
Album artwork: Not one for the wall at home.

This is that good shit, funky psychedelic soul. Every song hits just right and peaks with "Strawberry Letter 23". I've been vibing this for the last 25 years after, of all places, hearing a cover of "Strawberry Letter 23" by Zero 7 at one of their concerts where it was sung by Sia Furler (Pre Sia Sia) and Sophie Barker... Good times.

Pretty solid....

Cool funky tunes. Lost me a bit in the middle though.

This is my 885th album and truly the first album where I had never heard of album nor artist. And that's my loss. A deliciously slow soul/funk record.

Generic soul. I guess it's fine. Not what I would search out. But generally inoffensive. Can't say that is the picture of things I need to listen to before I die though.

This album was all over the place, it was like they just threw a bunch of demos together and called it an album. The music wasn’t bad, it wasn’t all that great either.

Smooth soul/ jazz. Mellow vibe.

A chill, funky album. 3*
Enjoyed: rainy day

Unfortunately, this album is underwhelming. Some of the other reviews had this spot on, saying it's a bit of a tease and seems to promise something, but then ultimately fails to deliver. It's quite stripped back and restrained and doesn't deliver on the bigger grooves. Strawberry Letter 23 is a clear standout.

2.5 rounded up.

This was fine, but forgettable funk. Favorite songs were Inspiration Information and Not Available.

Toch best een beetje een saai jazzy soul album. Je moet het van de drumcomputer en elektrische toetsen hebben lees ik. Vernieuwend toen, schijnt. Dan krijg je namen als 'XL-30' en 'Pling!'. Luister XL-30 en je hoort dat er nog een hele ontwikkeling nodig was op dit gebied.

Tot je ineens de hit voorbij hoort komen. Smaakt inderdaad als een gezoete aardbei. Maar zit veel beter in elkaar dan alles wat we hiervoor op dit album hoorden. Ook het volgende nummer 'Sweet Thang' klinkt ok. Wat rustig en jazzy. Dan nog even 'Ice Cold Daydream' doorkomen. En dan een goed uitgewerkt (maar ook weer heel rustig) instrumentaal nummer. Dat met 13 minuten toch wel weer veel te lang duurt. In die tijd duik ik wiki op.

Wat blijkt. Die laatste 4 nummers waarvan ik het wel waard vind om wat over te schrijven, zijn juist de bonus nummers, toegevoegd toen er een cd van werd gemaakt. Deze nummers stonden allemaal al op een eerder album uit 1971. Hoe krijgt de 1001 het voor elkaar? Altijd de meest verschrikkelijke debut-albums voorschotelen en dan juist nu kiezen voor de mislukte experimenten boven het staande eerdere werk. Zelf had ik deze artiest helemaal weggelaten denk ik.

Als die laatste nummers er eigenlijk niet bij horen, is het toch een harde 2 sterren.

Inspiration Information is actually quite a decent album. It definitely is the best of all the elevator albums I have looked at. The music was handled well throughout the songs and didn't get tiring at any point. The vocals were pretty good too if a little underutilized. All and all, Its a pretty good album.
Best Song: Aht Uh Mi Hed
Worst Song: Pling!

I felt like every track almost pulled me in, with the feeling that by the end songs would finally be grabbing me enough and I'd be enjoying myself, but then halfway through it felt like the album gave up and became relatively boring instrumentals. Nothing bad, but we went from smooth vocals and neat progressions to what many would consider elevator music, and it left a sour taste in my mouth, even if I did enjoy the intial run of tracks on side A. Perhaps I could turn to enjoy side a enough to bump the score up a bit on this album, but as it stands I just leave feeling a tad ripped off, and not much else.