Throughout the 1970s,
the Ohio Players were famous (or infamous) for their erotic album covers. But there are major differences between the covers of
Mercury albums like
Skin Tight,
Fire,
Honey, and
Contradiction and the covers of such
Westbound releases as
Pleasure and
Pain. At
Mercury,
the Players' album covers favored softcore erotica a la
Playboy or
Penthouse, whereas the covers of their
Westbound LPs were more bizarre and offered kinky bondage/S&M imagery. Those covers came under attack from different parts of the political spectrum; some of the more radical feminists accused
the Players of objectifying women, while Republicans and Christian fundamentalists accused them of promoting moral decline. And
the Players were laughing all the way to the bank -- at least from 1974 on. When their third
Westbound album,
Ecstasy, came out in 1973, they were still a year away from signing with
Mercury and becoming really huge. But they did have a small cult following, which found that
Ecstasy fell short of the excellence of
Pain and
Pleasure. Nonetheless, the material is respectable and generally decent. Serious
Players fans will find sweaty funk items like
"Spinning," "Black Cat," and the title song to be enjoyable even though they aren't among the band's essential recordings. While
Ecstasy isn't recommended to casual listeners, it isn't a bad album to have in your collection if you fancy yourself a hardcore
Players addict. ~ Alex Henderson
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