Definitive Wilson Pickett, The - Wilson Pickett

Advantages: still soulful
Disadvantages: no hits - buy a compilation

...This cd was originally produced in 1969, maybe after Soul's heyday, but still a whole lot better than the majority of songs passed off as soulful today. Wilson "in the midnight hour" Pickett has an excellant voice conveying true emotion and really let's you know when he's hurting or yearning. The songs themselves are a mixed bag:- Hey Jude, and Born to be wild, the 2 covers on the cd suffer in that the style of the original is so strong that they don't quite feel right. The uptempo songs such as Save me, toe hold, and man and a half are yhe stanout tracks where the braggardo Mr Pickett drives these songs forward. Slower songs such as back in your arms lack the drive to make them vital Stylishly this is still pure horn driven soul, and as the majority of the songs are uptemp originals you can't help but move your feet - like the huge... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Contains almost all their best tracks
Disadvantages: But not quite all

...Not to put it too bluntly the release of ‘More Than This’ is 1995 had a smack of returning to well mined gold seam about it. There had already been a Greatest Hits album some years before and whilst people may have wanted it on a new medium CD or Minidisc why not just re-release the original album. In repacking it they committed heresy by deleting 2 top Roxy tracks out went Pyjamarama and Do The Strand and for aficionados of the band this is unforgivable. Also deleted was Bryan Ferry’s version of the Wilson Pickett classic ‘In The Midnight Hour’ so perhaps there was some good judgement exercised after all. This had all the soul of a turn-up-at-the-studio and do the vocal routine. What the album does have is the 2 stages of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. The early seventies saw Roxy produce innovative... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Every recording is good to totally superb!
Disadvantages: NONE!

...Aretha Franklin, daughter of a famous Pentecostel pastor, inevitably began singing in a church choir at a very early age and it was clear then that she had the gift of a deep, raw talent. Her vocal style, even as a young child, was capable of such immense power and volume. She began her musical career recording secular tracks for Columbia Records, none of which really bought her much chart recognition. Signed by John Hammond at the dawn of the 1960's, he tried invain to nurture her talent effectively. By the time of 1966, all she had released on the Columbia label was a string of minor selling hits. So in 1966 she signed a new deal with Jerry Wexler (who had enjoyed enormous success with such fantastic Soul music legends as the unforgetable Ray Charles and the divine Wilson Pickett) to Atlantic Records which finally propelled her... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful