The go to Curtis Mayfield album is generally considered to be 1970's Curtis. The one with If there is a Hell Below and Move On Up on it. His Superfly soundtrack is also spoken about in hushed tones.I can personally vouch for the excellence of 1973's Back to the World as I have it myself.
But David Bennun, writing his third piece here makes the case for There's no Place Like America Today, and listening through to it for the first time yesterday, I could easily see why. It's certainly far from his most upbeat and positive record. It says it how it is, or at least how he sees it. Poor Black America in 1975. Same as it ever was and seemingly ever will be.
Given it's subject matter, it's the most unerringly serious of all the essays here, as it should be. Bennun does not avert his eye. In many respects he's the most serious of all the writers here too and he gives an excellent considered account to everything he turns his mind too. You get the sense that he feels this record has not ever really quite been given its due and suffered particularly in terms of critical consensus with What's Going On just as Mayfield has been neglected by comparison with Marvin Gaye. Fair enough.
I certainly wondered while listening to it why There's no Place Like America doesn't have the high critical standing that it merits because it's clearly a masterpiece. I direct you both to the record and to Bennun's definitive account of it. This is bitter sweet soul music and Mayfield is one of the true masters of the form.
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