Family Remains

It's easy to write off There's a Riot Goin' On as one of two things – Sly Stone's disgusted social commentary or the beginning of his slow descent into addiction. It's both of these things, of course, but pigeonholing it as either winds up dismissing the album as a whole, since it is so bloody hard to categorize…

A Northern soul duo who recorded the single "Lifted" in 1995 but had to wait two years for it to become a hit, the Lighthouse Family was formed in Newcastle by vocalist Tunde Baiyewu and programmer/keyboard player Paul Tucker. Both had been born in London, though Baiyewu lived in Nigeria for ten years before returning to attend college in the north, where he met Tucker. The duo began recording, and though Baiyewu had trepidations about his vocal abilities, they recorded the singles "Ocean Drive" and "Lifted" during 1994-95 for Wild Card Records. Their debut album, also named Ocean Drive, was released in late 1995. It was almost two years later, however, that "Lifted" hit the top of the British charts, as well as those of several other European countries. The duo's second album, Postcards from Heaven, appeared later that year.

It's easy to write off There's a Riot Goin' On as one of two things – Sly Stone's disgusted social commentary or the beginning of his slow descent into addiction. It's both of these things, of course, but pigeonholing it as either winds up dismissing the album as a whole, since it is so bloody hard to categorize. What's certain is that Riot is unlike any of Sly & the Family Stone's other albums, stripped of the effervescence that flowed through even such politically aware records as Stand! This is idealism soured, as hope is slowly replaced by cynicism, joy by skepticism, enthusiasm by weariness, sex by pornography, thrills by narcotics…