338: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly // Inspiration
Inspiration Maze featuring Frankie Beverly 1979, Capitol
Back in 2012, Maze (always) featuring Frankie Beverly were honoured with a BET Lifetime Achievement Award, which is sort of like a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for a universe where New Edition were practically the Beatles. (With the death of strictly regimented radio programming, this phenomenon doesnât really exist anymoreâthe Babyface/R. Kelly era of R&B was probably the last of it.) I was an avid Grantland reader at the time, and I remember Rembert Browne doing a funny breakdown of Maze featuring Frankie Beverlyâs performance that piqued my curiosity:
âThis was Maze featuring Frankie Beverlyâs first nationally televised performance, ever. To some, that will make sense because youâve never heard of them until just now, but to many that will come as a shock, because they were (and still are) one of the most popular Black acts ever. I often hesitate to throw around the possessive pronouns âweâ and âourâ as recklessly as BET does, but using those terms to describe this act seems pretty appropriate, seeing as they have widely been this Black hidden treasure for more than 40 years. If you need proof of this, go to a concert, or just watch this performance.â
I canât link you to that performance because BET were notoriously averse to posting the shit youâd want to see on YouTube (see also: BET Awards cyphers), but you can simply throw one of Maze featuring Frankie Beverlyâs hits on, close your eyes, and imagine like 2 Chainz, Omarion, and Taraji P. Henson grooving happily in loud formal wear. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly are so dope. At first, I thought their blazingly psychedelic/New Age sleeves (and that incredible seven-fingered, double-palmed hand logo) were kind of a mismatch for their laidback, romantic sound, but after I let them roll over me for a while, following the bass and keyboard licks around started to put me in mind of an endless, colourful labyrinth.
Inspiration isnât their best album, and contains none of their most recognizable songs, but itâs the one I have and is a Perfectly Good Maze featuring Frankie Beverly record. None of the songs are in any hurry to get where theyâre going (all of them top the five-minute mark), and none of them deviate from their core soundâno disco strings here, no lame rock covers, just good musicians putting in work. If you like your soul raw, this isnât gonna do it for you, but if the notion of a less crossover-oriented Earth, Wind & Fire or Commodores appeals to you, keep a look out for buddy with the extra digits.
338/365
