Although High Time would prove to be the 3rd and final album for the innovative rockers from Ann Arbor, the MC5 have gone down into the annals of modern rock history as the proto-type band of punk rock. Their previous efforts, Back in the USA and the explosive live debut, Kick Out The Jams, displayed a group that contained a political consciousness(Jams), yet also had a penchant for Chuck Berry influenced good time rock and roll(USA). With High Time, all of the elements within the group, at last, come together to cultivate a recording that provides all of these traits into one hell of a classic, underappreciated and overlooked, rock band and album.

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The guitar duo of Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne Kramer is most prominent and powerful on tracks like Sister Anne, Baby Won't Ya, Future/Now, Over and Over and Skunk(Sonically Speaking) and Rob Tyner's vocals provide a most earnest and energetic presence here along with the powerhouse rhythm section of Michael Davis(Bass) and drummer Dennis Thompson. Miss X is a power ballad and I would say is definitely one of Tyner's peaks as a singer; there is a lot of soulful power in his delivery on this number and although Future/Now(a Tyner original) begins energetically, the last half of the number is little more than self-imposed psychedelic indulgence of its day. Dennis Thompson provides the fast paced Gotta Keep Movin' and Kramer turns in Poison and Miss X respectively; but the real breadwinner on this album is Fred Smith. His tracks bookend this record and provide it with much of what makes this final effort an instant classic. Sister Anne is a tour de force for the group with a raging power that never lets up until its ramshackle coda that adapts the US Marine Corps anthem, "The Halls of Montezuma", as played by a few local members from the Salvation Army of Ann Arbor!! (Pretty ironic and funny if you think about it). The guitar strains of Over and Over, coupled with the lyrical message being another counter-culture oriented theme, makes this song another classic within the 5's politically aware, consciousness.

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Although, the history of the MC5 was brief, the group left a mark within the confines of American-oriented Rock Music and have become known as innovators of the later burgeoning punk scene that rose up in the middle-late 1970's, which also included the Stooges(another Ann Arbor/Detroit band), the Velvet Underground and later, the New York Dolls. Anyone out there that hasn't been exposed to the greatness of the 5, I implore you to do so. You won't regret it!!

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Rating Grade- A+