"Five years after setting forth with the swirling swamp mists of Funkadelic‘s self-titled debut, Parliament dropped the bomb. Mothership Connection is the fourth Parliament LP, but, crucially, the first for Casablanca Records. Its Dec. 15 release puts it just shy of eight months after Funkadelic‘s Let’s Take it to the Stage, and its taut, seven-song/38-minute course is the defining statement of parliament-funkadelicness. Not only does it announce “P-funk” as a concept, an ideology — a ‘brand’ prescient of Instagrammability, if one wants to think of it in the awful, corporatist context of our times — and not only does that concept serve as a nexus of Afrofuturism that’s still influential a literal half-century later in sound and thought, but it’s a nigh-on-unmatched collection of dance-ready hooks and the kind of record that, if you listen to it and don’t feel cooler afterward than you did going in, regardless of whether or not you’ve taken George–Clinton-as-Star–Child‘s advice and put on your sunglasses.

A landmark. One of the best albums made in any genre, at any time in the 20th or 21st centuries’ history of recorded music. Is classic, should be considered classical in the eras to come, which will only be improved by remembering it. Rest assured, any hyperbole you can throw at Mothership Connection, it can stand up. It isn’t shy about it’s commercial ambitions, as 7:41 opener and longest track (immediate points) “P.Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” ignites the party while also framed as a radio broadcast — nothing gets the attention of radio like acknowledging radio’s existence, and 50 years ago, being on the radio mattered for an up and coming group looking to make a splash with their first record for a major label..."

- The Obelisk