Presenting Sly & The Family Stone,brand new band reaching out to the summer of love!And 'A Whole New Thing' a great contribution.What Sly presents on this album is not exactly funk but a supercharged variety of soul,embellished with 60's rock touches.This style is known as psychedelic soul and this is a very early example.As far as the songs are concerned "Underdog",the first song and "Dog",the last song are among the strongest examples,and the catchiest.Strange enough this is the only Sly album that really has any distinct ballads,notably the gospelish "That Kind Of Person".Now this album has some pretty obvious points against it,but only when compared to the brilliant Dance to the Music,Life and Stand!.That point is that,especially in case of the brilliant "Advice" and "I Hate To Love Her" is that each of these songs tends be be bogged down in mountains of musical ambition;within less then three minutes sometimes there is more information packed into them then most full albums have.So this never had an enormous breakout single but Larry Graham's solo vocal on another ballad gospel type tune "Let Me Hear It From You" does leap out as an obvious single.Strangly enough "Only One Way Out Of This Mess" and "What Would I Do",two bonus tracks have incredible hooks and are the strongest "hit" type songs you'll hear on this album.Another bonus track "You Better Help Yourself" opens the door to the genre of proto funk;a groovier variety of soul based in rhythm.So while nothing on 'A Whole New Thing' truely leaps out as a hit record it does live up to it's name by presenting a unique sound and a legendary band.