Shortchanged by
Westbound records in favor of
the Ohio Players and
Funkadelic,
the Counts were a good band that didn't hang around long enough to sniff gold.
"Rhythm Changes" dropped as a single while this LP, their first, incubated. The credit read "
the Fabulous Counts," but by time the album emerged, they were simply
the Counts.
"Thinking Single" was the first 45 from the completed album, but
"What's Up Front," a studio monster comprising eight minutes of stoner funk; the staccato-ish
"Rock of Lies"; and
"What's It All About," a lurching beat-
ballad, were better choices. Style-wise,
the Counts exhibited shades of
the Ohio Players but were nowhere near as identifiable. Like
the Barkays, but to a much greater degree,
the Counts didn't have a definitive style. But that hardly kept them from jamming their butts off, as they do on this disk. ~ Andrew Hamilton
