Back in stock: Funk

Review: Edwin Starr's poignant and bright original funk number 'Time' gets a notable reissue via Soul Brother, once again casting a retrospective light on the American Motown boy wonder's advanced songwriting capabilities and out-the-box subject matters. Never one to shy from important messages, 'Time' perhaps rivals Starr's 'War' in its laser-focused singular theme, yet this time errs more existential and metaphysical than political; here Starr muses on father time and his obscurant curtain, pondering the fact that the ticking clock is indeed something that all human subjects feel, yet not all sense the gravity of until it's too late. On the B comes the comparatively righteous romantic march, 'Running Back & Forth', which by comparison lilts through jovial croons and lovestruck reveries.