Back Stabbers album cover
Back Stabbers

The O'Jays

1972
Philadelphia International Records

The two big hits on the O’Jays first outing for Gamble/Huff powerhouse Philadelphia International Records are as thematically disparate as anything — the “it’s not paranoid if they’re really out to get you” tension of the god-tier title cut (that piano intro alone!, and the closing salvo of soul-unites-the-planet anthem “Love Train,” which respectively nail early-decade, pre-Watergate “smiling faces” anxiety and anticipates (or invents) late ’70s discomania. The rest of it, from the pristine bowtie-funk of “When the World’s At Peace” to the floating-in-space regret ballad “Who Am I,” sound like the top ten hit singles they inexplicably weren’t but should’ve been.

Nate Patrin

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