The record in context

There It Is appears in James Brown’s official discography as a 1972 release. It sits beside Get On the Good Foot in the same year, offering another route into his early-1970s work.

Listen closely

A striking way to hear this music is to stop treating every vocal sound as a sentence. Brown can use a syllable as an accent, a breath as a gap and a repeated phrase as a cue. The voice gives the track its personality while also helping to organise its motion.

That dual role changes the relationship between singer and band. The instrumental parts do not merely accompany a melody. They create an active setting in which a phrase can be answered, interrupted or given extra force. The listening experience becomes closer to watching a group coordinate its movements than following a soloist over a background.

The result rewards close listening at moderate volume. Volume can communicate excitement, but it can also hide the distinctions between the parts. Let the arrangement separate, and the rhythmic precision becomes as interesting as the vocal intensity.