The Gap Band

So what if the Gap Band's best ideas are generally just P-Funk rip-offs? Originality has always played second fiddle to groove in dance music, and that goes double for this crew. Consisting of brothers Ronnie, Charles, and Robert Wilson, the Gap Band had a handful of solid (if slightly goofy) funk hits spread across its first three albums, including "I Don't Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops!)" from The Gap Band II and "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" from The Gap Band III, which also includes the Isley Brothers-style ballad "Yearning for Your Love." But it was Gap Band IV that made the group's reputation, stretching as it does from the rhythmic insistence of "Early in the Morning" and "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" to slow and soulful songs such as "Stay With Me" (a thinly veiled rewrite of the Orleans hit "Dance With Me") and "Outstanding."

It's downhill from there, though. The Gap Band V does at least deliver a serviceable groove with "Party Train," but Gap Band VI begins to fall back on stuff such as "Beep a Freak," which seems derivative even by this band's secondhand standards. Gap Gold is the first of many best-ofs, each of which tries hard to make the same old songs seem worth buying again (Ultimate Collection offers the best value for money). The rest merely chronicle the Gap sters' slow march to irrelevance. (J.D. CONSIDINE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide