A Record a Week: The Mar-Keys - The Great Memphis Sound

SIDE 1.
HONEY POT
PLANTATION INN
LOVING YOU TOO LONG
CLEO'S BLACK
GRAB THIS THING

SIDE 2.
PHILLY DOG
WALKING WITH THE DUKE
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
IN THE MOOD
"DEAR JAMES" MEDLEY (Night Train, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You, Good Loving, I'll Go Crazy)

The Mar-Keys were a studio session backing band in the 60's (and have recently reformed), who also had some single hits of their own. As such, most of the music is instrumental and many are familiar/cover songs. It's an excellent background album to have on, as I find most big band is.

The album swims seamlessly between swing, soul and some funk/r&b as it showcases songs from the Stax catalog (the label for which they were a backing band). The result is the best possible version of Muzak, which I wish they would pump everywhere instead of the inane version that they usually do.

This record felt like a throwback to my household when I grew up. TV was a thing we liked to watch then, but it was more of an event than a thing that always happened. The main room was reserved for reading, conversation and 100% of the time - music. As a result, the music was often softer music or instrumental. This record would fit perfect into that situation; unless you were reading a book, in which case getting up every 10 minutes would probably be irritating.