Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

Consumer Guide:
  User's Guide
  Grades 1990-
  Grades 1969-89
  And It Don't Stop
Books:
  Book Reports
  Is It Still Good to Ya?
  Going Into the City
  Consumer Guide: 90s
  Grown Up All Wrong
  Consumer Guide: 80s
  Consumer Guide: 70s
  Any Old Way You Choose It
  Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
Xgau Sez
Writings:
  And It Don't Stop
  CG Columns
  Rock&Roll& [new]
  Rock&Roll& [old]
  Music Essays
  Music Reviews
  Book Reviews
  NAJP Blog
  Playboy
  Blender
  Rolling Stone
  Billboard
  Video Reviews
  Pazz & Jop
  Recyclables
  Newsprint
  Lists
  Miscellany
Bibliography
NPR
Web Site:
  Home
  Site Map
  Contact
  What's New?
    RSS
Carola Dibbell:
  Carola's Website
  Archive
CG Search:
Google Search:
Twitter:

Honey Cone

  • Sweet Replies [Hot Wax, 1971] B+
  • Soulful Tapestry [Hot Wax, 1971] B-
  • Greatest Hits [HDH, 1990] Neither

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Sweet Replies [Hot Wax, 1971]
I know "Want Ads" is pure Jackson 5, but most of this is pure Vandellas. Producer-songwriter Ronald Dunbar must have had lots of advice from label owners Holland-Dozier-Holland--he uses every H-D-H trick and comes up with a few electronic effects of his own on this sturdy LP. Highlights: "Are You Man Enough, Are You Strong Enough" (to raise another man's child), "The Day I Found Myself" (was the day I left you). B+

Soulful Tapestry [Hot Wax, 1971]
Just as Sweet Replies repeated two cuts from the dud debut Take Me With You, this one repeats two from Sweet Replies--only not verbatim, which must make it all right. Wish they'd improved "The Day I Found Myself," rearranged and lengthened at a slower tempo, and "Want Ads," dulled with a bassier mix and stretched with orchestral break and vocal coda. I do like "Stick-Up," by "ABC" out of "Want Ads," and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," by "La Bamba" out of "Come a Little Bit Closer." But I don't like "Monkey" so much I want the encore. And filler is filler, even Dozier's and Holland's. B-

Greatest Hits [HDH, 1990] Neither