Released: February 1973
After the uneven albums of the preceding years, the Temptations finally get an album that manages to hold your attention all the way through as Norman Whitfield wrote every song here without the aid of Barrett Strong. Nor were there any covers of outside artists (if you don’t count bands also being produced by Whitfield at the time).
Surprisingly, given Whitfield’s even greater control over the situation there are no embarrassing lapses like on Sky’s The Limit, All Directions, or Solid Rock.
Masterpiece’s one flaw is the title track. The song is not bad at all, it just doesn’t justify running for 14 minutes. I think it makes it point around seven minutes and we’re good.
Indeed, let’s compare “Masterpiece” to the Temptations’ previous monster jam, “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”. “Papa” was majority-instrumental, but the lyrics were divided into TWO big patches, so you had an instrumental intro, lyrics, musical interlude, more lyrics, and then an outro that was the band crackin’ with the Tempts doing variations of the chorus along with it. A fluid operation.
“Masterpiece” has the musical intro lasting four minutes. Okay, fine. Then the Temptations sing the lyrics about ghetto life for two minutes. TWO MINUTES. And they never return. The final eight minutes is just the band and orchestra at work with absolutely no vocal contributions form the Temptations. Not the best flow.
Lastly, this song has no chorus or hook like “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”.
Despite all that, I don’t think it’s a bad track because the instrumental portions are interesting enough, but it’s certainly no masterpiece. Nonetheless, a severely edited version of this song became a #1 R&B and #7 pop hit, the final top 10 pop single of the Tempts’ career. They still have a few more R&B #1s up their sleeve.
Okay with that song out the way, let’s get to the rest.
The opening song to the album is “Hey Girl (I Like Your Style)”. The only love song on the LP, this in my mind is Richard Street’s finest solo showcase as a Temptation. Another single, it hit #2 R&B and #35 pop.
Next is “Masterpiece”. Covered that and that concludes Side 1.
Side 2 of the album commences with “Ma”. Another song with Street on lead vocals, but this ain’t no love song. Well, at least not a romantic song. It does show appreciation for a rough-and-tumble country mother who did all she could to raise her kids despite poverty. I don’t know who did it first, but I prefer Rare Earth’s version, which is a monstrous 17-minute funk-rockin’ jam band session.
“Law of the Land”, originally by Undisputed Truth, shows up next and is a thumpin’ dance funk jam, which is one step away from disco.
“Plastic Man”, the best song on the album for me, is disco as far as I’m concerned. Albeit very early disco, which makes it pretty striking that it has a piano intro that presages House music a decade later. There’s also some mean bongo work throughout and soaring trumpet.
Essentially it’s a sped up version of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” designed for the dance floor. Dennis Edwards commands most of the track and everything is ominous and menacing, but tilted in just a way to make you wanna boogie. And these lyrics are pretty damn good describing a con man who’s just always trying to “get over any way he can”.
The album’s third single, it reached #8 R&B and #40 pop.
The album closer is “Hurry Tomorrow” which is the best psychedelic song the group had made since “Smiling Faces Sometimes”. The song is essentially a drug trip gone horribly wrong. Damon Harris has the lead vocals and he’s pleading throughout the song for the night to be over so he can be done with these damn drugs. Whitfield employs some dated, but interesting studio tricks to produce an audio equivalent of taking too much heroin.
At least I assume that’s what he’s going for since I’ve never taken heroin.
ALBUM GRADE: B
Well that was refreshing. Clearly not a perfect album, but the first one in a while where I think the Temptations could hold their heads high on every track. As was custom at the time, Masterpiece was yet another #1 R&B album for the group, but would be their final top 10 appearance for pop as it reached #7.
Song Scores
Hey Girl (I Like Your Style): 7.5/10
Masterpiece: 7/10
Ma: 7/10
Law of the Land: 7.5/10
Plastic Man: 9/10
Hurry Tomorrow: 8/10