A great later effort from the 5 Stairsteps family -- a later offshoot of the initial enterprise, still working here under the production helm of father Clarence Burke! Keni Burke's a member of the group, and the work here has a very similar groove to his own RCA material of the time -- offset with some warmer elements that also echo the previous Stairsteps records on Warner, especially given that a number of the cuts have group vocals. Keni's bass does a nice job of kicking in the grooves, and the album's got a nicely warm sound for the time -- almost more late 70s group funk than early 80s boogie. Titles include the sweet harmony track called "Along The Way" -- plus "Party Time", "Circles", "Rated X", "Really Wanna See You", and "Same Thing". CD also features bonus track "Rated X (edited version)".
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