Sister Sledge

• We Are Family [Cotillion, 1979] B+
• Love Somebody Today [Cotillion, 1980] B+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

We Are Family [Cotillion, 1979]
The disco disc features identical versions (at 8:06 and 6:04) of the two side-openers--the title track, a magnificent, soul-shouting sisterhood anthem that could set straight cheerleaders and militant lesbians dancing side by side, and "He's the Greatest Dancer," a seductive tribute to a fellow who gets to doff his designer clothes in the presence of countless panting women. (I wonder if I would have been so amused by the boy from New York City in 1965 if I'd known that in 1979 he'd be taken seriously.) All that's missing from the album is "Lost in Music," that one-in-a-hundred I-love-you-know-what song that illuminates its subject. Plus a couple of useless slow ones and some chic riffs. So the d.d. would be your buy--if you could buy it. B+

Love Somebody Today [Cotillion, 1980]
Both here and with Chic, Edwards & Rodgers are progressing toward fillerless albums, and though I could do without the tautological directions to "Easy Street" (you simply catch "the bus of opportunity") I'm delighted that only one of these eight songs is a throwaway. But none of them is as meaty as any of the three good cuts on We Are Family, which isn't how they did it with Chic. B+