Cabbage Alley is the fourth studio album by the American funk group the Meters, produced by Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn and released in May 1972 by Reprise Records.

The signing afforded the group a higher recording budget and re-introduced organist and keyboardist Art Neville to the lineup, having briefly left the band some time earlier.

Active since the 1960s, the Meters were regarded as leaders in authentic New Orleans funk,[1][2] with a danceable, rhythmic sound characterised by the second line syncopation of drummer Zigaboo Modeliste and bassist George Porter Jr.,[3][2] complemented by organist and keyboardist Art Neville and riff-oriented guitarist Leo Nocentelli.

[2] By 1972, the group had achieved several R&B hits in the United States with danceable instrumentals,[4] but spent much of their time as the house band for Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's production company Sansu Enterprises.

[4][5] As the group's single "Chicken Strut" (1970) was rising in popularity, Neville acrimoniously exited the band due to an inter-band dispute regarding whether to sign with Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden.

"[13] While rooted in dance-oriented funk with second line syncopation,[3][14] Cabbage Alley also sees the group explore a wider array of musical styles than on previous albums.

[11] The song is characterised by Neville's rolling piano and, according to Joe McEwen of The Real Paper, "a stuttering rhythm track two years ahead of its time.

[5][21] Described by Timothy Crouse as "the poor black's version of Bourbon Street",[5] the site was a centre for the city's uplifting second line funk music.

"[29] Designed by John Echevarrieta, the album cover is based on a variation of René Magritte's 1952 painting The Listening Room, which itself had been reproduced on the sleeve of the Jeff Beck Group's Beck-Ola (1969).

According to authors Angie Errigo and Steve Leaning, "Both pictures are Surrealist in the incongruous, claustrophobic propinquity of two equally convincing, yet texturally antithetical realities.

They wrote that the sound is thick and funky and the group can be forgiven for "[overdoing] it sometimes", while praising the combination of the band and Toussaint's production for resulting in a unique record.

[23] The album and its follow-ups Rejuvenation (1974) and Fire on the Bayou (1975) were further re-released in 2000 by Sundazed Music, a label specializing in reissues of 1960s and 70s "classic recordings",[2] with liner notes by John Swenson.

"[23] In The Real People, Joe McEwen called Cabbage Alley a "largely (and unfortunately) ignored album",[25] while Billboard referred to it as a "great" debut for Reprise that "saw the band branch out with more chants and Neville's soulful vocalizing.

[6] Less impressed, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Cabbage Alley was less gritty than the band's previous works, finding them "sacrificing feel for texture", and complained that the group had no memorable songs to adapt to their new style.

[20] In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1997), writer Colin Larkin notes that Cabbage Alley began a series of "critically acclaimed albums" for the Meters that "reinforced their distinctive, sinewy rhythms.

"[31] Terry Perkins of St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that Cabbage Alley and its two follow-ups "clearly mark the band's high point as a unit", and further highlighted "Gettin' Funkier All the Time",[2] while Steve MacQueen of Tallahassee Democrat recommended them alongside "Cissy Strut" (1969) for defining the group's "stripped-down, choppy, syncopated funk style of the early 70s".