The Dramatics

"Get Up and Get Down," the first song from the Dramatics' debut, opens with a high-pitch screech -- both orgasmic and painful -- before giving way to a churning funk lick. It's an appropriately startling intro to one of the classic albums from 1970s soul/funk label Stax. Following the walloping start, the band settles down with its hypnotic hit single "In the Rain."

Sounds like better Motown than recently and greasier Motown than ever, and it figures--this Tempts-styled Detroit quintet, with Ron Banks in the David Ruffin role, play for the Memphis Grease Kings. "Get Up and Get Down" and "Watcha See Is Whatcha Get" resound with uptempo bottom, and while I find the big dramatic number, "In the Rain," a little too big and too dramatic, I do prefer Don Davis's sound effects to Norman Whitfield's. Better filler than Motown, too--but not that much better. (Grade - B)