The Temptations: Psychedelic Soul : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Much as the British invasion had earlier put a crimp in the careers of teen idols and surf bands, the late-Sixties wave of psychedelia knocked Motown's greatest acts a bit off-stride -- with one notable exception. The Temptations grabbed the psychedelic bull by the horns, making truly modern black-themed musical statements like no one save Sly and the Family Stone. Switching lead singers (the Contours' Dennis Edwards replaced David Ruffin), they became a hitmaking estate for producer Norman Whitfield and his songwriting partner, Barrett Strong. "Cloud Nine" changed the sound of Motown in '68, inaugurating an awesome run that included "Psychedelic Shack," "Ball of Confusion," "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "I Can't Get Next to You." Scratchy wah-wah guitar, congas and percussion, reverberant horns and darting strings, topical messages about war, the ghetto and a galaxy of social ills -- plus some damn fine vocalizing that pitted gritty leads against churchy chorales -- fill this well-programmed double-disc compilation of psychedelic-funk essentials.