With some endearingly mellow grooves, California's
Con Funk Shun continued to capitalize on their easy blend of soulful funk and disco across 1978's
Loveshine. The band was enjoying their ascendancy to the spotlight on the back of their number one hit "Ffun," and used that momentum to power this new LP into the Top 40. Leaning more toward disco-inflected soul than the more classic jazzed funk of their earlier material, yet retaining the funky backbeat,
Con Funk Shun swaggered through a slick set punctuated by the hits "So Easy" and "Shake and Dance With Me." Elsewhere, the catchy horn-heavy strains of "When the Feeling's Right" were proof that the band was not going to be any flash in the pan -- their quiet storm was here to stay. The contrasting style of the traditional ballad "I Think I Found the Answer," meanwhile, is a fine highlight of the band's overall range, although they slip with the middle of the road "Wanna Be There." With a plethora of instrumentation to complete the picture, including guest percussion from
Sheila Escovedo, who would later emerge as the
Prince protégée
Sheila E,
Loveshine is a gem of its era. And while purists may best love their early-'70s Soul Children Wattstax-era material,
Loveshine kicked off their next incarnation in style, and gave the band the momentum that kept them firmly in the charts for nearly a decade. ~ Amy Hanson