There’s No Place Like America Today

Didn’t have as much fun with it as Superfly, but an awesome laid-back record. (with some strong and sadly still relevant lyrics)

Classic 1970s funk and soul. Full of strife and hope. You can hear the future of Vandross, D'Angelo, many others through it.

Decent album. It's not a genre I listen to very often, but this was good.

Lovely production. Great mixture of funky shit and really soulful love ballads that are equal in hitting the sweet spot. Reverb-y guitar sound does a lot for that. Love you Curtis

The only other record I've had from Curtis Mayfield so far was Superfly and although that was fine, I am really happy to have a non-soundtrack album from him. I think he deserves that for sure.
From the first bass notes of this record I can tell I'm going to love it. Funky guitar comes in, vocals begin. This is going to be a good one. I love the grooves, and all the instrumentation is really great. Super laid back vibe that I could listen to all day. Jury's out on the vocals but they aren't off putting and fit well.
Then there's a weird song about Jesus for some reason. It loses points for that. Write all the songs about Jesus you want but I feel like there is a different genre for that and it's oddly out of place on a mainstream record like this.
The record is a too short, I was sad it ended. And that's the mark of a good album I think. I don't think this is the best early funk/soul record but I do really like it and will probably play it from time to time. 3.75/5

čista trojka

boring and and this jesus song was annoying

Perfekt å starte dagen med

One of the better albums I've heard here. Might become one of 5 star ratings but I am not sure anymore. It requires more relistens for sure.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

Just some strong socially conscious soul here from Curtis Mayfield, who I’ve heard of before, but apparently never actually heard, even with how famous his name is. I know the “Superfly” soundtrack is on the list, and I’m definitely looking forward to whenever we get that. For this album though, it does take a little bit of time to really find its groove & messaging – “Billy Jack” is a solid storytelling opener, and I did like it, but the sense of progression feels really slow, and the instrumentation feels kinda stagnant.

“When Seasons Change” takes those issues and arguably makes them worse; it’s the weakest track here, by far. I think the instrumentation is just too simplistic for the vibes it wants to capture, and without a compelling vocal hook to pick that up, the track just feels like it’s only giving half effort into both. The lack of focus in a lot of the lyrics didn’t help either; I get the “be thankful if you can sustain yourself” thing it’s got going, but it switches from someone who can and someone who can’t, and there’s not really a cue to tell when it happens. While it does touch on the themes the rest of the album carries to a greater degree, as a sort of torch-bearer to introduce them, it’s a rather flat track.

However, once “So in Love” begins, something about the whole album fully changes; his vocals get more confident, the instrumentation finds more of a groove, and the lyricism gets tighter, more precise, and everything really clicks into place. “Jesus” might be a little long, but it’s got the same sort of religious approach Stevie Wonder took for a lot of his stuff, and that extra idealized version of Jesus works for me, even if my faith is beyond shaky. It helps that it’s groovy.

From that point, the album slides out on a 3-track look at the mixed sense of community present in the world at the time; “Blue Monday People” is basically just a far more effective version of “When Seasons Change”, with a nice sense of coordination & hope behind it. “Hard Times” is a flipside of that, tackling the racism that’s still beyond prevalent then (and now), with even a cruel twist of another black man holding Curtis up. “Love to the People” is basically just a “yeah, everything kinda sucks, but I’m not giving up” track, and it’s a good sense of positivity to close the album on. All 3 are rich with the instrumentation & vocals (especially in the guitar / bass), and they work in a good harmony.

The singular “bad” track here is enough to pull it down to a 4.5 from a flat 5, but it’s an easy bump back up. I just thought this was a good album, and while it did take 2 tracks to really get going, I think the album wouldn’t work without them. They just needed some work, that’s all. Overall, I’m just glad I listened to some Curtis Mayfield now. If the “Superfly” soundtrack is supposed to be his magnum opus of sorts, then I’m definitely excited for it. As far as this one goes, it’s an easy bump to a 5.

Кьортіс Мейфілд це американська легенда. Я люблю таке інколи послухати, соул, мотаун оце все. Стильна музика, звісно ж з політичним контекстом.

Не можу сказати що прям фанат саме цього альбому. Але знов-таки, це те що я люблю включати вранці на вихідних. Поставив би 3.5, але оскільки не можна, то все ж 3 буде.

It lacks a standout banger like Move On Up or Superfly, but it’s Curtis Mayfield so it’s still going to be great.

Listened to it twice and, while it had its moments, overall it didn’t do much for me. Both times it sort of faded into background music.

Better than Coldplay

Not Curt's best but I like it. Hard Times especially.

Can't believe the brother Christgau disliked it so much. He's a confusing man.

Great instrumental performance, but the song structures are kind of meandering and his vocals are annoying.

2.5/5.0: Mixed

this album was a slog to get through which is saying something considering the relatively short runtime

A bit slow, a dit dull, but still listenable. Just meh!

Strangely for quite a short album a lot of the tracks felt unnecessarily long. Jesus is accurately named, but i suspect mr Mayfield and i are putting very different emphasis on that song title.

A tale of what could’ve been i fear.

It's really surprised me how much it turns out I like funk, and the bits of this record that leaned into that I loved. Love to the People was great for example. On the flip side, Billy Jack outstayed it's welcome by being so melancholy for so long. Jesus's preacher-like vocal wasn't my favourite though I really enjoyed:

"But what He gave us never will die!
He never had a hustlin’ mind
Doin’ crime wastin’ time!
Drinkin’ that wine"

I genuinely adored Curtis Mayfield's voice and I suspect that a different album of his will be something I could really love (I'm assuming it's only a matter of time before album generator gives me a second CM record). This particular album though gets:

2/5 (because 2.5 isn't an option)

I enjoyed this. Mayfield's voice is pleasant to listen to, the tracks were funky, and it didn't overstay its welcome.