Black Gold - Sought After Soul - Various Artists

Advantages: Groundbreaking; ingenius samples; no swearing
Disadvantages: 23 tracks of which only 14 over are 3 mins long

.... **12. Tread Water** A lot of people dismissed De La Soul as hippies when they first arrived on the scene. Sure, they shied away from the limelight, refused to follow rap’s uniform of gold chains and gold teeth and wore leather medallions with African maps and CND logos on them. Then they recorded this track: a song in which they talk to various animals and get their views of an ever-changing world. “I was walking on the water when I saw a crocodile/he had daisies in his hat so I stopped him for a while”. Aside from the new age mumbo jumbo, the lyrics are rather astute and the shuffling beat and distinct bassline make this a treat. **13. Potholes In My Lawn** "I've got potholes in my lawn", raps Trugoy on this song about the sheer monotony of white, suburban life. Comparing the ghetto lifestyles of it's largely... Read review

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Advantages: Soulful, genuine, funky, rare
Disadvantages: None

...Knight). But don’t let this hitherto anonymity of the artists put you off. With no reputation to cement or live up to, there are fourteen women here who are singing for their supper. 1968-1974 was, for soul music, a golden age when ideas were in abundance and the merest groan or howl of a black female on vinyl had the artist tagged as a diva. Everything here is impossibly funky. With some of the beats and the rhythms, you can see how the sampling culture of late 80s hip-hop artists caught on so rapidly: there is much booty here for those crate diggers. So what of the individual tracks? Well with so much attitude going on here, I’ve marked the tracks out of five and, due to the constant message of these tracks, I have given a YKSMIWSS (You Know She Means It When She Sings) reference too. Hold onto your afros, we... Read review

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Advantages: Well compiled collection
Disadvantages: Not all best tracks included

...quite as well as others but whose contribution to Soul is an important one. Possibly Taylor’s adaptability for singing in various styles from Soul, Funk, R&B and later Disco precluded his ability to make any one style his own, nevertheless the tracks included here and his biggest hit "Who's Making Love?" show off his vocal ability and his easy singing style to perfection. It is a bit strange however that two other of his tracks "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) are missing. No Stax compilation would be complete without some tracks by a legend of Blues guitar Albert King. ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ the title track form the classic album of the same name in included on Disc 1 and it is a classic in every sense of the word being later covered by many other artist... Read review

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