Go For Your Guns

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Although there’s plenty of frantic disco-funk on this release, <i>Go For Your Guns</i> found the Isley Brothers inching into the slow grooves of their quiet storm era. Its most enduring track, “Voyage to Atlantis” and “Footsteps in the Dark,” feature the same ambitious jams and improvisation that the group had made its signature through the ’70, but taken down to a more intimate, seductive tempo. Those two songs also found the group once again working ahead of its time: Neither was a hit upon its release (“Footsteps in the Dark” wasn’t even put out as a single), but it wasn’t long before they became the most beloved entries on the double-platinum album. The drums alone on “Footsteps in the Dark” are iconic; once the guitar and bass enter, you’re hearing the bedrock for songs by everyone from Ice Cube (“It Was a Good Day”) to Usher to J Dilla. Most of the song, including the lyric, were crafted by Ernie—best known as the group’s virtuoso guitar player, he actually started on drums and is also behind the addictive, understated beat on this record. The family band slowly adds layered, almost contrapuntal riffs as the song progresses beneath Ronald’s soaring falsetto. .

via Apple Music

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