Sly & The Family Stone -
Small Talk (SQ LP)
I haven't seen much talk about this one. Obviously it ain't the classic stuff, and there are certainly a couple of duds, but I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it. For one thing, the quad mix is more refined and quite a bit less erratic than
Greatest Hits, yet it's still quite active with all kinds of cool elements (strings, keyboard, backing vocals, percussion) popping out of the rears.
One really interesting thing I noticed is the way the lead vocal is mixed on the song "Can't Strain My Brain": it's hard to describe, but it sounds huge and seems to hover out in the room, which is very atypical for a CBS quad mix. You'd think that would really screw up the decode, but it actually works quite well. Those with SQ decoders should check this out...
Perhaps D-V could pair this up with Sly's
High On You for a future two-fer release? I've never heard the discrete versions of either.
"Time For Livin'":
View attachment 39812
"Can't Strain My Brain":
View attachment 39813