It was the early days for soul reissues when this compilation first came out as a Kent LP in 1982 -- so it's understandable that the annotation was on the perfunctory side (though odd that, when it was reissued on CD, no additional information was added to the liner notes, let alone extra tracks added to the disc). Even so, as various-artists soul anthologies go, it was of fairly marginal and specialized worth, with all 15 of the mid-'60s tracks taken from the vaults of the Modern label. Modern didn't cultivate the most distinctive of label or regional soul sounds in the era; in fact, many of its releases were derivative or even imitative. That's what you get on this album, largely populated by no-hit artists, though Lowell Fulsom,
Z.Z. Hill, and
Ike & Tina Turner are on board, too. To be blunt, too many of these tracks are sub-Motown productions to make this comfortable listening for soul fans with a sense of discrimination. Not every track aspires to latch onto the Motown bandwagon, but a lot of them do, sometimes to the point of lifting ideas almost verbatim (as
Hill's "Baby I'm Sorry" does in its female backup vocals, modeled slavishly on
the Supremes' harmonies in "Come See About Me"). When a track pops up that's not a Motown aspirant and is of genuine quality -- namely,
Ike & Tina Turner's "I Can't Believe What You Say," which is the duo at its most compellingly earthy -- the ears perk up in attention and the rest of the cuts are dwarfed in comparison. The album offers competent danceable pop-soul for the most part, but it's not original or expressive enough to command interest, unless you're so enamored of the Motown sound that even photocopied variants of sorts are enough to satisfy you.