Music » Soul R&B Music

Hall and Oates often enlivened '70s and '80s radio with sharp pop concoctions that drew on a wellspring of R&B influences picked up in their hometown of Philadelphia. They scored frequently enough, in fact, that this 20-track collection--intended to supplement or replace the earlier Rock 'n Soul, Part 1 with post-'83 winners--doesn't capture all their finest moments. (Where, for instance, are "She's Gone," recorded for another label but licensed by RCA for Rock 'n' Soul, and the terrific new wave/funk fusion "Your Imagination"?) Still, much of what's here is fine music that should appeal not only to those who carry fond memories of radio and MTV playing it the first time around, but also to a good-sized handful of their kids. --Rickey Wright

After mounting successes with the Commodores during the late '70s, Lionel Richie exploded into one of the biggest stars of the '80s, then enigmatically disappeared from the music business for nearly a decade. Fourteen of the tracks on this 20-track anthology (which also includes a five-cut bonus disc compiled by Richie) topped the charts, ample testimony to Richie's remarkable success in shifting from the Commodores' roots in the Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye Motown to a pioneering career as a crossover balladeer. His willful drift to the middle of the road found that its yellow line was nothing but gold. This collection charts the singer's upbeat successes with his former band, segues gracefully into the ballads and party-lite sensibility that made him such an unlikely '80s icon, and touches on his late-'90s reemergence. A newly recorded duet with Enrique Iglesias on "To Love a Woman" suggests that the elder popmeister hasn't lost his touch; indeed, his voice seems more warm and soulful than ever. --Jerry McCulley

Not to be mistaken with Bill Withers's Greatest Hits or even the 1994 best-of with which it shares its name, Lean on Me nevertheless shares much with those two earlier retrospectives--notably the likes of such '70s soul-pop gems as the title track, "Ain't No Sunshine," "Lovely Day," and "Use Me." Like the earlier Lean on Me, this remastered selection includes 18 tracks, 13 of which overlap with the '94 set. Withers's oeuvre is something less than expansive: he recorded 10 albums for Sussex and Columbia between 1971 and 1985, then gracefully exited the business with three top 10 hits to his credit. The singer's warm vocals and wise lyrics have held up splendidly through the years, making him a likely candidate for periodic rediscovery. This anthology stands as the title of choice for the next wave of soul fans Withers wins over. --Steven Stolder

Release Date: 2001-04-10, Audio CD, Sony

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 15-JAN-1991

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: RASCALS
Title: ULTIMATE RASCALS
Street Release Date: 07/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: OLDIES

You don't expect a Broadway star to be slow burning and funky (Ben Vereen notwithstanding), but Heather Headley is both. Best known for her stage roles in The Lion King and Aida--the latter won her a Tony--the Trinidad native is used to arch performance. Yet her debut album focuses on smooth, lean R&B grooves and Headley's honeyed voice. Heartbreak is Headley's ace. "I Wish I Wasn't" is a tortured missive dispatched from an empty home. "Always Been Your Girl"--the set's hands-down centerpiece--finds Headley pleading with a longtime friend to consider her in a different light. It's a staggeringly powerful song--the kind you can imagine Headley belting out beneath a stark spotlight--made all the more stunning by the fact that the whole collection isn't tied to that one emotion. Also here are the breezy, Mars-Venus meditation "Nature of a Man" and the near-tribal thump of "Like Ya Used To." There are producers and guests aplenty, but Headley is, as always, the star of the show. --Kim Hughes

Although their first album appeared in the early '60s, it was with 1975's "They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play)" that the Spinners really got moving. They emerged as one of the poppiest of the '70s soul bands, which cost them dearly in credibility. But their best songs were stunning--and by the time original vocalist Philippe Wynne left the group, in 1977, they'd racked up enough successes to stuff a greatest-hits package from top to bottom. Atlantic's 1978 "Best of the Spinners" LP was that package, although this release augments it with later hits like "Working My Way Back to You" and "Cupid." Another anthology package, a double-CD released by Atlantic Records, packs in even more, but the essentials are all here. --Gavin McNett

Atlanta hit maker Jermaine Dupri knows exactly what he's doing with his all-male quartet Jagged Edge: combining old-school soul with a G's sensibility and focus on a topic that everyone can relate to, love. On their sophomore disc, J.E. Heartbreak, the four young men prove that their sweet, gentle voices can be as provocative as a lover's soft caress. The ballad-heavy album features the guitar-tinged "Healing" and "He Can't Love U," a plea to a female who should rid herself of her undeserving lover. While slow jams are clearly Jagged Edge's specialty, uptempo tracks such as "Keys to the Range" and "Did She Say" (which utilizes the lighthearted flute loop from the Beatnuts' "Off the Books") demonstrate their ability to be slightly rugged and rough, making the group's moniker incredibly fitting. --Celine Wong

Billy Paul might've been just an archetypal '70s Philly-soul love man with a slightly over-formal jazz-trained voice, melodramatic arrangements, and one great cheating song (the title track), but there was a side of him that was a revolutionary dressed as a Casanova: some of his best crooning was in the service of black power. Curtis Mayfield's early solo work is the obvious template for epics such as "Black Wonders of the World," but recasting Paul McCartney's "Let 'Em In" as a civil rights anthem is a stroke of genius only a populist like Billy Paul could've had. The lighter, more apolitical songs here sometimes stagger under their Gamble-Huff production, but when Paul gets a chance to cut loose and jazz up a Dylan tune with a piano trio, it's a treat. --Douglas Wolk