Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young Westbound 2WB 2020 (1972)
Funkadelic made an abrupt turn with their fourth album. Rather than extended psychedelic R&B jams, George Clinton & Co. had shifted away from guitar as a centerpiece of the music to vocal harmonies. Some of this could pass for vintage soul, and one track even could fairly be called country rock. Listeners who appreciate Funkadelic as being one of the stranger and weirder rock acts of their day may not warm up to this much, but on its own terms this is a successful album. It marked the group’s first attempt to be more commercially palatable. The approach makes a certain amount of sense, considering that attempting to duplicate or top Maggot Brain would have been futile.