Album · 1969
Cloud Nine
Cloud Nine is a 1969 soul album by The Temptations. It runs 10 tracks across 35 minutes on Motown Records. Riffiter listeners rate it 4.1/5 from 6 ratings.
Your rating
- 4.1 /5
- 6 ratings
- 10
- Tracks
- 35 min
- Runtime
- 114 bpm
- Tempo
- C major
- Key
Ratings
6 ratings · avg 4.1
Reviews
No reviews yet.
Critics
1 publication
- AllMusic4.5/5
Scores collected from the English Wikipedia ratings box (CC BY-SA). Ratings belong to the publications; follow a link to read the review.
Cover art
1 credit
- Art direction
- Ken Kim
Tracklist
10 tracks · 35 min
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About
Best known for their silky soul vocals and smooth-stepping routines, the Temptations were firmly entrenched as the undisputed kings of Barry Gordy's Motown stable when cutting-edge producer Norman Whitfield walked into the studio and announced that it was time to shake things up. The resulting freakout became the first half of the stellar Cloud Nine, an album that would become one of the defining early funk sets, with songs that not only took Motown in a new direction, but helped to shape a genre as well. On one side and across three jams, Whitfield and the Temptations would give '70s-era funk musicians a broad palette from which to draw inspiration. The title track, with its funky soul bordering on psychedelic frenzy, was an audacious album opener, and surely gave older fans a moment's pause. Only two more songs rounded out side one: an incredibly fresh take on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which jazzed up the vocals, brought compelling percussion to the fore, and relegated the piano well into the wings, and "Run Away Child, Running Wild," an extravagant nine-minute groove where the sonics easily surpassed the vocals.
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After shaking up the record-buying public with these three masterpieces, the Temptations brought things back to form for side two. Here, their gorgeous vocals dominated slick arrangements across seven tracks which included "Hey Girl" and the masterful "I Need Your Lovin'." Funk continued to percolate -- albeit subtly -- but compared to side one, it was Temptations business as usual. It was this return to the classic sound, however, which ultimately gave Cloud Nine its odd dynamic. The dichotomy of form between old and new between sides doesn't allow for a continuous gel. But the brash experimentation away from traditional Motown on the three seminal tracks which open the disc shattered the doorway between past and present as surely as the decade itself imploded and smooth soul gave way to blistering funk.
In brief
- Is Cloud Nine good?
- Riffiter listeners rate Cloud Nine 4.1/5 from 6 ratings.
- When was Cloud Nine released?
- Cloud Nine was released in 1969 on Motown Records.
- How many tracks are on Cloud Nine?
- Cloud Nine has 10 tracks, with a runtime of 35 minutes.
- What genre is Cloud Nine?
- Cloud Nine is catalogued under Soul, Motown.
- What BPM is Cloud Nine?
- Cloud Nine runs at a median tempo of 114 BPM across its tracks, most often in C major, measured from audio analysis.
- What albums are similar to Cloud Nine?
- Listeners of Cloud Nine also rate The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland by The Supremes, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, What's Going On by Marvin Gaye.
- Who produced Cloud Nine?
- Norman Whitfield produced all 10 tracks on Cloud Nine.
Credits
- Produced by
- Vocals by
Credits and connections from Genius