Masterpiece
Released
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The one concession to the old-style peak-’60s Motown Temptations on their 1973 album Masterpiece is opening track ‘Hey Girl (I Like Your style),’ a beautiful ‘doo-wop’ style ballad similar to their ‘Just My Imagination.’ For the rest of the album, influential producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield crafts what bassist James Jamerson called “monstrous funk” for the Temptations: elongated, dark, dance floor-targeted psychedelic soul and funk odysseys, based around a single riff, with lengthy vamps, layers of percussion and wah-wah guitar, taking the group far from their sweet-soul singing roots, giving them an ultra-contemporary edge.