I've been listening to this album a lot recently so it's just been on my mind. But while a lot of people are split about whether Quik's best album is Rhythm-al-ism or Safe & Sound, I think it's an easy decision...Safe & Sound is a masterpiece.

I admit that I'm partial to the west coast/g-funk sound, so that certainly plays a part in my opinion on this. And I should stress that I take nothing away from Rhythm-al-ism, which I think is a pretty flawless album itself.

But, I just find that Safe & Sound has a certain consistency that doesn't let up, not for one track. Somehow, every single song flows perfectly as if it's one long, smooth, funky track, but that said, the sound never gets stale. It remains fresh throughout.

I think the instrumentation on that album is insane. That flute at the end of Somethin 4 tha Mood? Orgasmic. The strings throughout a lot of the tracks are just beautiful. The drum tracks. The "hooks" (for lack of better term) on songs like It'z Your Fantasy and Let You Havit, just funky, hard, yet smooth all at the same time. The hooks on Somethin 4 tha Mood and Safe & Sound, the "talkbox" or whatever it's called (that Roger introduced him to) that he used on a lot of these tracks added a ton of flavor to already funky tracks.

Again I should stress, this takes nothing away from Rhythm-al-ism. I look at that album as his attempt to step into a more r&b oriented sound, and he succeeded at that attempt with flying colors. I just think the above-referenced consistency on Safe & Sound outshines that of Rhythm-al-ism. For example, a song like "Speed" from Rhythm-al-ism, while not a bad track, just doesn't seem to fit the groove of the rest of the album to me. There's no track I would say should be removed from the album, I just find Safe & Sound to have a much more cohesive sound.

This may have been discussed before (and if it was, chances are I was all up in that post cause I'm a huge Quik fan), and if so I apologize. Just was thinking about it as I've been listening to it front to back several times over the last couple months.

How would you all rank Quik's albums? This isn't a set in stone list but I think mine would look like this:

1. Safe & Sound
2. Rhythm-al-ism
3. Quik is the Name
4. Under tha Influence
5. The Book of David
6. Balance & Options
7. Way 2 Fonky
8. Trauma

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