Family Reunion

While preparing to be away next Saturday, I thought I'd revisit an album of mine we last mentioned in late 2010 which is like 9 years and about ten months ago where I had replaced a worn lp with a distressed jacket for a brand new shiny cd issued through Edsel who then had got the rights to the pre 1976 O'Jay's catalogue over here.

In early January this year the pioneering re-issue company Vocalian-Dutton issued a bath of Super Audio cds and interestingly it included that title. 

One interesting quirk of their decision to issue it back with the next O'Jay's album was this the original lp jacket wasn't used in any form for the re-issue front cover  but shown on the rear.
Most companies tend to set both covers in a two on 1 on front reduced in size in a frame with the titles prominently displayed.

The cover of this album is important because the whole concept of the album is about "The Family" and this reflects their view at the point it was held the family was breaking down structurally not least in African-American society and the feeling this was fuelling other social ills such as criminality, single parenthood as choice (not the result of abuse or other issues within a relationship needing one party to leave) and unwanted babies.

That is the theme of the opening song, a meditation on the meaning of Family appropriately enough called Family Reunion and it includes the singles I Love Music and Living For The Weekend.

Coupled with this was the follow up album, Survival which I had bought a few years earlier  home of the singles Give The People What They Want and the title track.

As with the others in this series they are presented with a regular stereo cd layer for standard cd players and cd rom drives for copying to Mp3 or Flac and a higher quality Super Audio cd layer that requires a dedicated player.

Both albums received short lived SQ Quadraphonic and Q8 tape issues in the four speaker form of surround sound at the time and this release includes for players that can access it those original long time unavailable mixes.

It sounds excellent  and was well worth the modest cost of buying direct from the manufacture over here. 
m