Grand Funk Railroad - Shinin` On

While I`m on the subject of remastering, this is the fourth album I`ve purchased since the albums were reissued. The other three were The Red Album, Survival, and E Pluribus Funk. I`ve posted reviews for all of them, and on each, I felt that Capitol has also done an outstanding job going back and enhancing the old master tapes to the point where the audio was crystal clear and really gave the listener a feel for the brilliant, and much underrated musicianship of the band. I`m not sure if this is indicative of the differences in engineering styles between Ken Hamann and Todd Rundgren, but I felt that the audio on this one was not as clear as it could have been. Several songs, such as "Please Me," "Little Johnny Hooker," and their cover of "Locomotion" sound like every instument is swimming in feedback, and even Don Brewer`s vocals in "Please Me" seem garbled. This is a shame, because there are instances where the music is multilayered, with several different things going on. It`s good, but it would have sounded better if it were clearer. Mark Farner dusts off his harmonica for one of the songs, and the group brings back a small group of backup soul singers. Unfortunately, there`s so much feedback in both instances that everything sounds like noise.

As far as the music is concerned, the group moved farther away from the hard rock they started with, though they still managed to balance both it and their newer pop sound at certain points in the album. "Shinin` On," the title track, is probably one of the best Mark Farner/Don Brewer collaborations I`ve heard (with the exception of "I Can Feel Him In The Morning," off of Survival), with solid rhythm from Brewer and bassist Mel Schacher, fiery vocals ( also from Brewer, that sound clearer than any other song on the album), and a lengthy Farner guitar solo with all the right twists and turns. Keyboardist Craig Frost also has his turn at soloing, and the way he and Farner feed off of each other is magic. In addition to playing longer and better organ solos, Frost also tries his hand at songwriting on this one. His best effort is "Getting Over You," a collaboration with Don Brewer, that has all the energy of the title track, plus a solo on the moog synthesizer that complements the fast pace and energy of the track magnificently. "The Locomotion" is a classic cover, which the band always does in style, remaining true to the form of the original while putting their own unique stamp on it that says: "Hi, we`re Grand Funk Railroad!" One of my favorite songs on here, though, and one that sadly suffers from the feedback problem, is "Little Johnny Hooker," one of Mark Farner`s famous songs with morals. Each of the band members is in top form on it, and it transitions about halfway into a lengthy instrumental with a soul choir that provides a nice finish to a partially decent record.

However, this album did have a few unfortunate trends that started to rear their heads in Grand Funk`s repertoire: it contained tracks that you can skip over! "Carry Me Through," for some reason, didn`t sit right with me. I don`t know if it was the excessive stereo fading (which I normally like, but in this case, everything was too echoey), or the fact that the producer was invited into the recording booth to play guitar for it. This was another unfortunate trend in the bands devolution, and that was way too many cooks. Finally, there`s the second track on the album. "To Get Back In" is a fun pop song, with classic down-on-your-luck lyrics courtesy of Mark Farner, but it also contains horns, which complement the instrumentation of this song nicely, but were used too excessively on later albums.

I don`t know, maybe the reason for the feedback is because the band intended this record to be played in a room with the curtains drawn, incense burning, and a joint being passed between friends. Or maybe I just got the one defective copy. But even without the remastering issues I have to say that as a pop album, this does very well. But as a Grand Funk Railroad album, you`re better off starting with something like On Time or Closer to Home, and then coming back to check this one out.