Released: April 1971
After completely tripping out on Psychedelic Shack, the Temptations reportedly (according to Wikipedia) staged a mini-rebellion against their producer Norman Whitfield. The demands: more love songs, fewer hippie shit.
Well, Whitfield met them halfway. Quite literally.
Sky’s The Limit is divided into four love songs and four songs of hippie dippie bullshit. And upon listening to it all… The Temptations had a point. The love songs here are the superior tracks and the hippie dippie bullshit misses the mark, with one amazing exception.
Side 1: Mostly Love Songs
The album opens with a remake (not a cover, but a remake) of “Gonna Keep on Tryin' Till I Win Your Love”, which the Temptations originally recorded for Cloud Nine. This new version far exceeds the old.
Its gossamer nature serves as the perfect setup for the next song, which is the absolutely gorgeous “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”.
This song is the most miserably beautiful thing ever recorded. The lead vocals by Eddie Kendricks are of a complete wimp who creepily watches a person walk by his window every day. Fortunately he keeps the ogling there and goes no further cuz then we’d have a stalker song.
Instead Kendricks, as the title implies, just daydreams about how happy he could be with this person who doesn’t even notice him.
As Kendricks daydreams the group softly harmonizes their asses off. And Paul Williams sings one single line in the song: “Every night on my knees I pray”. Well he sang that line with all the conviction he could muster over a stunning orchestral arrangement. Seriously listen to the instrumental of this song.
Released as a single (Duh! Like Motown would sit on this gold), “Just My Imagination” became the third #1 pop single for the Temptations.
Next up on the album is “I'm The Exception To The Rule”. Not as good as the first two songs, but still a fine ballad with Kendricks and Dennis Edwards leading the way.
The first side closes with the one hippie dippie bullshit that ain’t no bullshit: the original version of “Smiling Faces Sometimes”.
Thus far, the songs were clocking in between 3:30 and 4:00. Well “Smiling Faces” storms in for a 12:37 runtime. Except the song itself isn’t quite a storm. It’s a slow menacing creep matching the lyrical content.
The most sinister thing about this song is an electric guitar riff that moves like a sidewinder snake. There’s also woodwinds that give the feel of a medieval play unfolding. Eventually a flood of strings and horns give some bombast to the song, but all the while Kendricks has the thing under his vocal control detailing how a pat on the back just might hold you back, cuz you really can’t trust your friends.
To emphasize the point, there’s echoey laughter from the Temptations in the latter part of the song. Can’t trust nobody, I tell ya!
Song Scores for Side 1
Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love: 8.5/10
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me): 10/10
I'm The Exception To The Rule: 7/10
Smiling Faces Sometimes: 9/10
CHART STATS: Despite boasting a #1 R&B and pop single, this was the first Temptations album to not reach #1 R&B since their debut LP in 1964. It was at #2 for four weeks, so things weren’t terrible for them. Also, the album only hit #16 pop their first non-top-10 album there since 1968.
Side 2: Mostly Hippie Dippie Bullshit
Well, this lesser side opens with “Man”. It’s notable for having a metronome as the only musical instrument. It’s fine.
We do get one final love song in “Throw A Farewell Kiss”, which is fantastic of course. It’s actually a cover of a song first recorded by the Velvelettes back in 1964 or so.
Okay, now comes the real bullshit…
“Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)” is a pretentious underwhelming call for world peace. Somehow the psychedelic soul never sounded so ragged and not in a good way. At least the song had the good sense to end after 4:30.
Can’t say the same for “Love Can Be Anything (Can't Nothing Be Love But Love)”, which absolutely does not know when to stop. It could have been bland album filler if it ran for only three or even four minutes. Instead, INSTEAD it runs for nearly 10 minutes running the same ole beats over and over again. The lyrics are kind of interesting, but after hearing the chorus for the umpteenth time the message gets on your nerves. There are no solos. There are no vocals dynamics. It’s just an endurance test your eardrums will fail.
Song Scores for Side 2
Man: 5/10
Throw A Farewell Kiss: 7.5/10
Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World): 4/10
Love Can Be Anything (Can't Nothing Be Love But Love): 2/10
ALBUM GRADE: C+
This is some Jekyll & Hyde shit, cuz this album has some truly outstanding songs on Side 1 (which is basically an A or A+) and some truly horrific songs on Side 2 (which is basically a D)
The worst part? If Whitfield had simply cut out “Love Can Be Anything”, the album still woulda been about 35 minutes. Perfectly fine length! Move “Throw A Farewell Kiss” to Side 1 and move “Smiling Faces” to Side 2 and you have a balanced LP time wise and content wise. All the love songs are now on Side 1. All the hippie stuff is on Side 2. The album as a whole could be a B or B+.
Alas, that ain’t what happened.
Sadly, this would also be the last Temptations album with Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams. Kendricks left for a pretty successful solo career. Meanwhile, Williams afflicted with alcoholism and sickle cell anemia was no longer able to perform and died in 1973.