It wouldn’t take a whole lot of changes to make this song a classic. The singing, from Larry Blackmon’s whiny lead to the sporadic ad-libs, sounds splendid. It’s when it stops, which happens mostly in the second half, that the overall quality starts to go down.

I would’ve condensed the song by removing the spelling bit, which is silly, along with the drum sections at the beginning and end. It’s also a little disconcerting how Blackmon repeats the hook after the first verse but not the second. It should be the other way around.

Not that Word Up isn’t the jam as it is because it is. “Pretty ladies”, ugly ones too, will find it hard to stay still to it, especially when the synths and horns soar in over the beat. This is serious funk. “No romance”, no bullshit; just a groovy anthem to throw down to.

my rating : 4 of 5

1986