Zapp II

Building upon the unprecedented success of Zapp's self-titled debut and group leader Roger Troutman's solo debut, The Many Facets of Roger, along with those two album's hit singles — "More Bounce to the Ounce" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," respectively — Troutman returned in 1982 with Zapp II, a strong album again propelled by a mammoth single, "Dance Floor." Outside of the infectious single, which topped the R&B singles chart, Troutman stuck to his patented formula of vocoder-laden funk on each of the album's other songs. There isn't anything new here that wasn't on Zapp or The Many Facets of Roger, just more of the same; of course, this isn't exactly a bad thing, as Troutman retreads familiar ground effectively. At this point in his career, Troutman wasn't short on ideas and was able to inventively lay down dense, carefree funk with ease — in sum, there's literally no filler here, impressive when you consider his prolific output during this era. Not quite as fresh as the first Zapp album but still a great album for its era.