Ohio Players // Skin Tight (180 Gram Turquoise Vinyl)

By the time of The Ohio Players' fifth album, there was no question that the band had set their sights on the lucrative pop charts and disco dance floors of America and beyond. (It was their first LP for Mercury and first one to go platinum.) Good thing, too, because Skin Tightoffered sassy funk grooves and beautifully arranged horn boogies. The hit title song sounds like what Sly Stone might’ve been doing in 1974 if he'd had his finger on the sweaty pulse of the disco underground, while “Jive Turkey,” with its horny blips and electric piano, sounds like some grooving Stevie Wonder street credo. The band keep their tongues in their cheeks on “Streakin’ Cheek to Cheek” and get all bedroom-eyed on the near eight-minute soul smoother “It’s Your Night/Words of Love.” Handclaps and organ lift the gospel-like “Is Anybody Gonna Be Saved?” to an optimism that transcends such forewarning lines as “I can’t just help but look around and see we’re digging our own graves.” This album set the tone for more of The Ohio Players' hits to come.