AMG Review of Sunshine Day

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

This two-CD compilation contains the entirety of all three studio albums Osibisa recorded for the British Pye and Bronze labels (1975's Welcome Home, 1976's Ojah Awake, and 1980's Mystic Energy), as well as five non-LP sides (among them 12" mixes of two tracks from Mystic Energy). Although this was the group's period of greatest commercial success ("Sunshine Day" and "Dance the Body Music," both included here, were both modest British hit singles), it was also a time that saw them slide further away from their funkified African roots. On both Ojah Awake and especially Mystic Energy, they made some nods to commercial soul and disco, diluting their pre-Afrobeat hybrid of African and Western influences. However, there's still a fair amount of respectable synthesizing of African, funk, and pop influences going on, even if it does occasionally sound more like a Carlos Santana-less Santana than an African band (particularly on Welcome Home). The non-LP tracks aren't superfluous; the ominous chant-suffused "Jumbo" is as good as anything on the set.