Black Radio Won't Play This Record

by Alex Henderson Though Mother's Finest had some success in the R&B market with the 1979 hit "Love Changes," the Atlanta residents were always rockers at heart. After reuniting in the late '80s, MF aimed at the urban contemporary market with Looks Could Kill -- a pedestrian, forgettable effort that had very little going for it. But the Led Zeppelin-influenced band more than made up for that artistic blunder with the heartfelt Black Radio Won't Play This Record. Taking off the gloves (both musically and lyrically) and throwing urban contemporary considerations to the wind, MF excels by doing what it does best: scorching heavy metal and hard rock with a touch of Ike & Tina Turner-ish soul. Lead singers Joyce Kennedy and Glenn Murdock are as passionate as ever, and the songwriting is first-rate. While "Like a Negro" protests racism and "Stop" warns that unsafe sex can result in AIDS, "Crack Babies" addresses the horrors of babies born to cocaine-addicted mothers. MF's small but devoted following hoped that this album (arguably its heaviest since 1981's Iron Age) would save the headbangers from obscurity, but sadly, it enjoyed little attention.