Something About That Woman
View on Discogs
View on Wikipedia
Album Summary
"Something About That Woman" came sliding out of Solar Records in 1981, and honey, that label was on fire. Founded by the visionary Dick Griffey, Solar — Sound Of Los Angeles Records — had become the West Coast church of funk and R&B, and Lakeside was one of its most faithful congregations. Produced and arranged by the group themselves, this album carried that unmistakable Lakeside fingerprint: a collective of musicians from Dayton, Ohio who had migrated their Midwestern grit out to the California sound and made something altogether their own. Released right in the thick of the early 1980s funk movement, when synthesizers were shaking hands with soul and the rhythm section was law, this record stood as a testament to what Lakeside could do when they locked in and got to work.
Reception
- "Something About That Woman" performed with strength on the R&B charts, affirming Lakeside's standing as one of Solar Records' most reliable and beloved acts during the early 1980s.
- The album connected deeply with dancefloor audiences and R&B radio programmers, who recognized the group's ability to craft grooves that felt both polished and genuinely funky.
Significance
- This album stands as a prime example of the West Coast funk aesthetic of the early 1980s — synth textures layered over tight rhythmic pocket grooves, with the kind of sophisticated musicianship that separated Lakeside from the pack.
- Lakeside's work here reinforced Solar Records' cultural authority as a label that understood funk and R&B not just as product, but as a living, breathing art form during a period of real transformation in Black American music.
- As one of the Dayton, Ohio funk collectives that helped bridge the gap between the hard funk of the 1970s and the electro-influenced R&B of the 1980s, Lakeside's output on albums like this one helped define the transitional sound of an entire era.
Tracklist
-
A Something About That Woman 94
3:59
-
B The Songwriter 142
4:30
Artist Details
Lakeside is a funk and soul powerhouse that came together in Dayton, Ohio back in the early 1970s, part of that same fertile Midwest groove scene that gave the world Ohio Players and Zapp, cooking up a sound that was all slick, danceable funk with a smooth R&B finish. They hit their peak with that undeniable 1980 smash "Fantastic Voyage," a certified classic that still gets the party jumping to this day, cementing their place in the pantheon of great funk acts who carried the torch from the 70s right into the new decade. Lakeside never quite got the widespread recognition they deserved, but among true funk faithful, they remain a treasured piece of Black musical culture, their legacy living on through samples and the enduring power of that groove.
