After winning his first Grammy and constantly touring across the world, Cleary returns with his ten-song LP Dyna-Mite on Thirty Tigers. Cleary's fingerprints are omnipresent throughout, with his hip-shaking piano playing in the spirit of the Crescent City. The R&B / funk / soul-imbued movable feast epitomizes his moniker of multi-instrumentalist, too. And after writing every song on the album but one, it made sense for him to look to his talented group of New Orleans musicians to round out the roots and emotion of Dyna-Mite.
Although countless Mud compilations have been released over the years, none of them managed to cover every phase of the group's career. This was remedied in 1997 with the release of The Singles '67-'78. This overwhelmingly generous collection spans two discs and includes the A- and B-sides of each single the group released. Of course, the most impressive tracks are the hits from the group's stint at RAK Records: the combination of pop hooks and guitar firepower utilized for stomping glam classics like "Tiger Feet" and "Dynamite" still sound fresh and exciting today. However, this set also unearths some surprisingly good tracks from the group's oft-overlooked periods at Private Stock and RCA Records: "L'L'Lucy" is a full-throttle rock tune built on a smile-inducing vocal stutter hook and the languid yet catchy "Slow Talking Boy" is unlike anything else in the Mud catalog.