Gap Band III

With “Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)” and “Humpin’”, <i>The Gap Band III</i> expand this working-class Oklahoman outfit’s resume of trunk-rattling R&B jams—but its real pleasures are the moments of musical subtlety. Backed by nothing but bass and piano on the moving “Nothin’ Comes to Sleepers”, Charlie Wilson shows why he’s one of R&B’s most underrated vocalists. The band is at its most convincing on “Yearning for Your Love”, an intricate, glimmering slow jam that lifts their raunchy funk into the realm of celestial inspiration.