“But you’re not commercial,” Bobby Womack describes being told by music producers in the extended musical monologue that opens his take on Bacharach and David’s “(They Long To Be) Close To You.” In spite of that fact, this was the album where he would prove those producers wrong: It was both his first true commercial success, bringing him into Billboard’s Top 40 for the first time, and the studio debut of a new, funkier, ’70s-ready Bobby Womack. Backed by the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section (though the album was recorded in Womack’s then-home, Los Angeles), the singer and songwriter stretches out over a tight set of originals and covers for a wide-ranging result that appeared on both jazz and R&B charts. (His composition “Breezin’,” which like this album was first recorded in 1971, would shortly bring those charts closer than they’d ever been previously.) Womack nods to the moment’s political consciousness on the deep funk of the title track and the crooning optimism of “Everything Is Beautiful,” but for the most part his boundary-pushing is aesthetic: The album’s biggest hit, “That’s The Way I Feel About ’Cha,” anticipates the coming quiet storm, with a lush, string-backed instrumental boosting Womack’s flexible, evocative melodies. There are some familiar voices in the background: Pam Grier is heard singing backup on a few of the songs, as are Womack’s four brothers—his first bandmates. But for the most part it’s all Womack, singing, playing guitar, writing songs, playing organ, and creating arrangements, finally fully manifesting his ambitious musical plans unencumbered. One of the poppiest and prettiest sides is, fittingly, Womack’s cover of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” which grows from a reverent, stripped-down rendition into a loose jam over the course of its four-and-a-half-minute runtime.