Gold: Ohio Players

With a bottom-heavy funk sound driven by bright and brilliantly arranged killer horn riffs, the Ohio Players were one of the best and most consistent of the 1970s funk bands, and their approach and lyric sensibility in many ways prefigured the hip-hop explosion that hit some 30 years later. This two-disc, 24-track survey of their key Mercury Records tracks explodes like a party-in-a-box straight out of the gate, and includes the irresistible hits "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster," as well as lesser known (but no less impressive) sides like "Far East Mississippi" and the gorgeous "Time Slips Away." This band still sounds great and that they also sound surprisingly contemporary in both tone and theme is revelatory. Everything essential is here.