Originally titled Landing in the Ghetto, Parliament’s fourth album sounds instantly familiar to those who partied in the ’90s instead of the ’70s: samples of “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” and “Mothership Connection (Star Child)” feature on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. One would be hard pressed to find a more indelible image of Afrofuturism than George Clinton in silver thigh-high boots hanging out the side of a flying saucer (aka the Mothership). Keyboardist Bernie Worrell’s signature wormy squiggles on “Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples,” bassist Bootsy Collins anchoring “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)” and the horny horns of Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley help make Mothership Connection one of Parliament’s strongest efforts.

The first Parliament album to feature the jazzy riffs and swinging soloing of The Horny Horns, Mothership Connection is considered by many fans to be the best P-Funk album. It’s packed full of musical and vocal hooks, with jazzy Ellington and Basie-descended brass and a vocal harmony technique perfected in the 50s do-wop period all perfectly meshing with the very latest studio trickery and leading-edge synth work. No ballads, no down-tempo jams and a cosmic Black Afronaught concept tying it all together, Mothership Connection was a pure funk triumph.