Various Artists [Afrodisiac 'Forty Original Soulful Classics] 

This is a wonderful double disc album of real Soul classics, a well chosen bunch of songs, that border also on Disco, Motown, and Pop, some of these tracks i have nowhere else in my collection, so this makes these disc all the more welcome, virtually all of the music comes from the Seventies, what a great decade that was, and i personally remember many of these tracks in the charts when i was younger, but sadly i wasn't into this type of music at the time, mainly leaning towards Glam Rock and Punk, with some New Wave chucked in also, now this stuff really gets to me as i'm older, even tracks that i don't think are great, and i could easily live without, i'm now developing a real fondness for, nothing sounds out of place, everything fits together, it's not just about the individual songs, but how all together they make a lovely bigger picture, i've wrote about these disc in my Blog twice before [17th January 2012 & 30th November 2010].

Well a whole bunch of songs blew me away, tracks 5-6, 10, 16-17, 19, 28, 30, 32-33, 37 & 40, too many tracks to talk about individually, so it would be nice to pick just two, and talk about them both more extensively, but giving the discs another little sample, wow that's a hard task, there's so many moments within tracks that really got me going, however here they both are, with a more extended synopsis,

16 Lou Rawls [You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine] - What a voice!, as smooth as butter, and so soulful, he's able to turn small phrases into large pleadings, the way he can change the meaning of words just by the way he sings them, almost perfection, in the intro it's that click click click from the percussion that deliciously gets on your nerves in a nice way [0:01-0:18], and when Rawls comes in, the voice blows you away, and the piano echoes the voice, a great and satisfying technique, Rawls can really sing with power in the chorus, and it's good to hear the click, click, click again, that merges the chorus and the second verse [1:02+], and when the chorus comes back again, this time it adds female backing singers [1:54+], the piano now uses a lovely down the keyboard glissando to bridge the chorus and the third verse [2:15], ha ha very nice, such a nice beat throughout, the epitome of a Soul song.

30 William De Vaughn [Be Thankful For What You've Got] - I had to put this in, this was one of those tracks i spoke about at the beginning that i can easily live without, yet now i find a real fondness for this, it has a gorgeous bongo solo at the beginning, and then the Hammond swirls just come in, now that's real soul [0:00-0:25], and the guitars and voice come in [0:17+ & 0:25], the twangy guitar makes a real vibe to it, and then later a very inauspicious Vibist [Vince Montana] comes in [1:08+], what a tremendous instrument it is, it makes such a difference to the song, the lyrics are fairly repetitive, the original version lasted just over seven minutes, and on this disc it cuts two minutes off the instrumental in the second half of the song, the vocals end and there's some of the instrumental on this version [3:43+], i love the way the Vibist gets a lovely solo in [4:35-5:23], which takes the track into the fade, it's a real joy to fall in love with this song.

Various Artists [Afrodisiac - Forty Original Soulful Classics]

This is a wonderful double disc set, featuring mainly Seventies Motown, Disco, and Soul, there's some really great songs on here, plus it brings back memories of when i was a teenager!, this disc appeared in my Blog in 2010 [30th November 2010], and basically the same feelings apply here, what a tremendous era in musical history that was, however i was more into Rock, Glam, and Punk at the time, it was only later that i delved into this stuff.

The visuals for this issue are great, the front cover is a mono black and white [brown and yellow] shot of a girl with a huge afro hairstyle, very Seventies, notice the CND [Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament] necklace!, even the back cover is excellent, black and brown on yellow really stands out, and the brown and black nicely differentiates between song and Artist, all round a great package.

In listening to these discs, i really enjoyed tracks 3, 5, 9, 16-17, 19, 32 & 37-40, and i suppose out of these if i could just mention four, and give a little synopsis of each,
9 The Isley Brothers - [Who's] That Lady, featuring a wailing lead guitar throughout, the intro is quite Reggae-ish, as is common with these guy groups, there's a call and response between the lead singer and the other guys, and every chance the guitarist gets, off he wails with his guitar, at the end he gets to do a long manic guitar solo, which i really enjoyed!.
19 Johnny Bristol - Hang On In There Baby, quite a long slowish introduction, of almost talking, but when the music really get going, it's a lovely moment, the chorus is excellent, lovely background guitar, there's a clever brass interlude in the middle [1:59-2:18], and Bristol really develops an intensity afterwards, 'let it go baby, let it go honey'.
37 Limmie & Family Cookin' - You Can Do Magic, the only track that i highlighted from last time, it's such a strong song, and it's got a clever vibe to it, mainly caused by the cymbal work of the drummer, 'you can do magic!', it's virtually shouted out, with such enthusiasm, makes you want to jump up and down, and a nice little sax solo towards the end [2:11-2:26]. 
38 Billy Ocean - Love Really Hurts Without You, Ocean has a nice strong voice, a slight warble to it, and such a powerful song to go with it too, the chorus is really infectious.

Various Artists [Afrodisiac - Forty Original Soulful Classics]

This is a double disc set i listened to over two days , i went out for a couple of long walks in the cold, but this warmed me up no end, two things i noticed more than ever by my listening experience, one is this is a great showcase for some truly great soulful voices, almost compiled with voices in mind, and secondly, i notice very much that it's percussion [not necessarily drums] that really makes a lot of very good tracks into great tracks.

Of course the word 'Afrodisiac' on this album comes from the word 'aphrodisiac', a substance to help increase sexual arousal, it's a nice play on words, of course most if not all of the Artists on these discs are Americans of African origin, and Soul music is certainly associated with sexiness, the discs steer somewhat away from from Disco and R & B, concentrating on real Soul, this was an inspired idea, make the discs into a fairly narrow band of genre, no track seems out of place.

The booklet and back insert are very well laid out indeed, with a picture of a girl with a huge afro hairstyle, very apt, but it's the monotone yellow and brown [and of course black and white] which make the visuals very appealing, the track listing easily differentiates between Artist and songs, by using different colours, something other compilers should take note of, it really makes things easy to read, and is visually pleasing, i see these disc on Ebay a lot as i search for desirable discs to buy, and i can't count the amount of times i've seen this set going for £1, and with £1 postage too, it means that a whole disc of music costs just £1 each, and delivered to your door too!, i recommend you snap up a copy if you see one.

Well again there's so many tracks that really got me in the mood, maybe i could just mention a few, tracks 17, 28, 37 & 40 were especially incredible, possibly the Disco slant to the discs?, here's my feeling about them,

17 The Real Thing - You To Me Are Everything, this got to No1 in the British charts in July 1976, yep that summer of '76, a heatwave, i remember this song being on the radio a lot, everytime i hear it, those endless summer days come flowing back to me, surprisingly it didn't do well in the States!, this song has a wonderfully flowing groove it, there's that cha cha guitar laying down a real groove, and in the chorus the sweet strings come in, plus the chorus has an incredible intensity to it, with a chorus of three guys creating a real Disco froth, a superb track.

28 Jimmy Helms - Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse, got to No1 in the British charts in 1973, starts right away with singing the chorus, with the first word sung in A capella in a high powerful voice, making a tremendous effect, it's just this high falsetto voice that mesmerises throughout, verse and chorus blend and complement each other perfectly.

37 Limmie & The Family Cookin' - You Can Do Magic, got to No3 in the British charts in 1973, i thought it was a fantastic song at the time, but largely it's been forgotten, and now doesn't feature greatly even on compilation discs, so it was a great reunion when i got these discs, they also had another hit with 'Walking Miracle', which was also excellent, but who remembers them now?, Limmie actually comes from Limmie Snell, a guy, but i always thought it was a female singer, it's certainly a very high voice, the chorus is so contagious, such a great burst of energy on magic, magic, this is a song worth getting acquainted with.

40 The Three Degrees - When Will I See You Again, hit the No1 spot in the British charts in 1974, a perfect song to end these compilation discs with, the bittersweet parting of two people who don't know if it's love or just friendship, and don't know if they'll meet again, it's those sweet strings that soar in at the start, over a clever percussion, but the stars are of course three girls with superb harmonies, with their sexy ooh's and ahh's as an intro, deep down it's the ongoing strings in the background that binds it all together, a real nostalgic hit to the heart.