Higher! [Box Set]

As a box set, Higher really does reinforce how creatively rich a band Sly & the Family Stone were, while making it seem almost unbelievable that their peak only lasted seven years and seven albums.

This box brims with supportive evidence [that they were "the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world."] [Oct 2013, p.103]

This definitive 77-track anthology favours the early years, illustrating how quickly Stone and his multiracial crew evolved from a decent R&B outfit into a trailblazing psychedelic-soul gang show, [Oct 2013, p.117]

The richest overview yet of maybe the most visionary funk operation in pop history.

A high-energy quartet of live tracks from the band's 1970 performance at the Isle of Wright Festival is indispensable, all in all making Higher! the ultimate Sly & The Family Stone document. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.103]

The quality of the set rises and falls with the quality of the band, from the formative fusion of soul, rock, and pop on their first three albums to the sudden, exhilarating sound of it all snapping into focus with 1969's Stand! and the gradual turn into 1971's claustrophobic, paranoid There's a Riot Goin' On and the nimble funk of 1973's underrated Fresh. From there, however, it all fell off just as quickly as it had risen, as Sly's genius dissipated in a downward spiral of drugs and delusion.

Higher!'s real value is in its depth: Stone needs four CDs to display his breadth, and this comp is full of funky fun. [No. 101, p.59]

Finally, maverick genius Sly Stone receives due respect in this four-disc retrospective, as the leader of rock's first multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-genre band.

Higher! details every ounce of Stone's genius, while cropping just enough to avoid the lengthy, late-Seventies tailspin continuing on today.

Fans will alp up the spot-on menu, while newcomers can discover one of the most criminally overlooked musical titans of the last century. [Nov 2013, p.98]

If you want a more detailed account of each album, you’ll have to check our Reissue Of The Month review in RC 335. Limited, expanded editions of Sly & The Family Stone’s first seven long-players, from 1967’s A Whole New Thing to 1974’s Small Talk, were reissued in 2007 and are now out of print. This box set sort of plugs that gap.