It would be impossible to condense the Parliament-Funkadelic collective’s sprawling, five-decade discography—comprising two bands and several side projects, dozens of musicians, and a trail-blazing brew of funk, psychedelia, rock, and Afrofuturism—into one cohesive mission statement, but their 1978 breakthrough album comes close. The title track boils down the group’s philosophy in its clearest terms: funk as unifying escape, “a chance to dance our way out of our constrictions.” George Clinton and company still get Sly-Stone-in-space out-there (see the 10-plus minute scatological opus “P.E. Squad [The Doo-Doo Chasers]”), but with the most accessible melodies, grooves, and production of their career. True heads may prefer the hazier early-to-mid-‘70s run, but there’s a reason this was their commercial and critical peak.