The Jackson 5 - Skywriter (CA)

The Jackson Boys Come Of Age

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 17, 2006

Pros: Driving And Experimental Motown Soul

Cons: A Few Minor Dips In Songwriting

'Skywriter' marks the end of the Jackson 5's commercial winning streak at Motown.But as far as the artistic side of things went things were at the peak of their form.The enjoyable kiddie funk of their early music was completely erased by ...a more driving,psychedelic and rockier sound.Namely the title track-it's catchy,dancable but has far more of an edge-Jermaine's bass thumps,Tito gets far more of a fuzz tone on guitar and theirs even some leslie amp experimentation."Hal
lelujah Day" is a spirited gospel tune celebrating the return of Vietnam troops."The Boogie Man",a Halloweenish R&B shuffle,like the former finds Michael's voice in the midst of changing.The edginess continues with "I Can't Quit Your Love","You Made Me What I Am" and "World Of Sunshine",which is the rockiest of all the songs here.The 'old' Jackson 5 only shows up to a tiny degree on the nice "Corner Of The Sky","Ohh I Want To Be With You" and "Uppermost"-alt
hough the lyrical theme of the latter is very sensual and adult.'Skywriter' is an album made by teenagers and young adults,not children and even though it would be a few years before the Jackson brothers exerted full career independence and moved to CBS/Epic but for their Motown releases this is the first of five albums that found them leaving the label by modernizing their sound,growing with the times and as artists. Read more Less