Reality

‘Reality’ sees the Godfather stretching out a little. It contains stone-cold funk classics like ‘Funky President’ alongside the beautiful, orchestrated ‘Broken Hearted’, one of the few James Brown tracks where you get to hear just how pretty he could sing when he wasn’t screaming for funk redemption. Like a few of his albums, ‘Reality’ contains some weaker tracks - his takes on ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ and ‘The Twist’ feel very much like filler - but there are some great funk jams here, the JBs sound in fine form and many of the Fred Wesley horn arrangements soar.