More than maybe any other band or artist, you can chart the changes in Black music — how it was played and what it was called — via the Isleys. They’re the only group in the history of music to have a demonstrable influence on both the Beatles and Ice Cube. Go For Your Guns is often considered among fans as their best album — they were often written off as a “singles band,” which does this album and roughly seven or eight more in their catalog a disservice, but it was also a transitional one for the group. 

Go For Your Guns is the literal halfway point in the Isley’s 30-original-album catalog, and was the culmination of years of genre-hopping and switching the style up while watching the money pile up. But it also laid the groundwork for the Isleys to continu...