Album Review by EDF
On the success of their previous compilations, those good people at EMI are treating us to a fourth volume of soul tracks harvested from various labels that have been bought up by the company.
This is a real mixed bag of tracks. Check out the bassline for THE DIPLOMATS ‘Honest To Goodness’ and think of THE BEATLES ‘Day Tripper’. A coincidence? We will never know. If you like instrumentals, then look no further than to the blistering Hammond organ and trumpet pumped ‘Nothings Too Good For My Baby’ by SANDY NELSON. You wonder why you never heard of tracks such as DEE IRWIN’s ‘I Only Get This Feeling’ and IRMA THOMAS’ ‘Long After Tonight Is Over’ which sounds like lost classics. The cool groove of ROSIE ST JOHN’s ‘I Know The Meaning’ is enough to put anyone into a good mood and the same can be said of the joyous tones of LEVI JACKSON on ‘This Beautiful Day’.
Not all the tracks are of the same quality and come across as average but are still enjoyable. LINDA ELLIOT’s ‘Fell In Love With You Baby’ and THE O JAYS’ ‘Hold On’ both sound like songs that have run out of gas before they even started. ERNIE ANDREWS’ ‘A Fine Young Girl’ sounds like countless other soul tracks from that era while GENE MCDANIELS’ ‘Walk With A Winner’ sounds more like a Walker Brothers ballad than a soul track and is out of place on this collection.
Overall, if you are looking for a collection of lesser-known tracks, then this is not a bad place to start. Just how many more tracks EMI have to continue this collection with is unknown but going by this, there cannot be too many compilations left.
