Reflections is an album by the American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, released in 1981.[1][2] It was his second album without Brian Jackson.[3] Scott-Heron supported the album with a North American tour.[4] The album peaked at No. 106 on the Billboard 200.[5]
Arista Records mailed a copy of "'B' Movie'" to every member of Congress.[6] "'B' Movie" was a hit on Black radio stations.[6]
Production
Recorded at TONTO Studio, the album was coproduced by Malcolm Cecil.[7][8] Scott-Heron was backed by the Amnesia Express, the band he formed following his period leading the Midnight Band.[9][citation needed] "'B' Movie" is a criticism of Ronald Reagan, whose image appears on the album cover in one of the lenses of Scott-Heron's glasses.[10] "Inner City Blues" is a version of the Marvin Gaye song.[11] "Grandma's Hands" is a cover of the Bill Withers song.[9]
Robert Christgau called "'B' Movie" Scott-Heron's "smartest political rap ever"; Knight Ridder deemed it "a bitter tour de force."[12][15] The Tucson Citizen labeled the album Scott-Heron's "slicing philosophy of America's determined return to the years before social conscience and civil rights."[17] The Philadelphia Daily News praised the "brilliantly articulated bad-tidings."[18]
The Independent deemed the album "a classic."[19]The Guardian concluded that, "unlike some of those he influenced, Scott-Heron had enough intellectual and musical flexibility to ensure that his medium wasn't crushed under the ponderous weight of his message."[14]AllMusic wrote that the cover of "Inner City Blues" "swings convincingly, [but] has a lengthy spoken-word riff that fails to embellish on the pain implicit in the original."[9]
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