Zapp & Roger, All the Greatest Hits

Mmm, no: don't call it a compilation because it's not. Instead, Warner, wisely realizing the weakness of the source material (with the exception of Zapp II, here represented by just two tracks, "Dance Floor" and "Doo Wa Ditty"), grabbed some of Roger Troutman's solo work as wood filler to shore it up — no coincidence he was billed as producer. That's fine so far as it goes (especially "I Want To Be Your Man" and "So Ruff So Tuff"), plus the best parts of début Zapp are here and the inclusion of "Computer Love" means you're spared listening to the rest of The New Zapp IV U, but the three "'93" remixes are unwelcome and the final track is nothing more than a showboat rehash of the previous ones. You might be better off treating this as the do-over album they never got to do, and in that sense it's better than what they started with, but its flaws aren't easy to ignore. (Content: mild adult themes.)

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Zapp

The world did not need a third P-Funk clone after the artificial bifurcation of Parliament and Funkadelic, nor did said clone need to be produced by Bootsy. The music's good enough in a basic sense, I suppose, but notable mostly in its quantity than their quality ("Coming Home" in particular could have been twice as good if it were half as long) and its repetitiousness drags the 40 minute runtime out into six sometimes interminable tracks. I like a 12" as much as the next guy, but give me something new to listen to. Still, "Funky Balance" on, er, balance manages to exceed its unnecessary length with a legitimate if repetitive groove, "Be Alright" is a solid R&B outing, and of course the classic "More Bounce to the Ounce" — almost stylistically out of place with its enthusiastic new wave funk — starts the album off strong. The chief issue is that it goes downhill from there; no amount of juice can save it from its own self-cannibalization. (Content: mild adult themes.)

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