Sly & The Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On (Top 500 Countdown Update)

This album is brilliant in so many ways, but is so incredibly dreary and dark sounding it is hard to decide whether I like it or not. Even the songs that seem upbeat have an odd moody feel to them. But lets face it you can take this album and understand where groups like A Tribe Called Quest got the idea for their sound from. These dark, funky, moody beats and melodies with political and social lyrics are something that many will copy later on, but I have to say there is an odd edge to this album that I don't know that anyone else will ever be able to capture. The allmusic.com review talks about Sly sinking into drug abuse and what not and that playing a big part in the sound of the album. My problem with that is that he will follow this album up with Fresh which has a much cleaner and approachable sound. In fact Stand!, There's a Riot Goin' On and Fresh all sound similar but different. I suppose this album could be seen as transitional going from the spiritual upbeat feel of Stand! to the darker cleaner funk sound of Fresh. But it seems to me it is better to let all three albums stand on their own as these albums represent the pinnacle of Sly's work.