In 1969, Dusty Springfield went to America and put herself in the hands of the Atlantic Records masterminds. They had her ease up and go for lyrical nuance – to stunning effect. "Son of a Preacher Man" is the lasting hit, though every tune here is a marvel, and "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore" (written by Randy Newman) and "No Easy Way Down" (Carole King) are two of the saddest songs ever committed to tape. Dusty in Memphis didn't sell a lick, but it is now considered to be Dusty's crowning achievement. This edition is loaded with over a dozen bonus cuts from the same sessions.
Wildly talented but also just plain wild, Amy Winehouse had pipes that were more R&B-drenched than Joss Stone's, and her lyrics were more autobiographical than Lily Allen's. She also led the kind of tabloid-rich lifestyle that probably made even Britney Spears blush. But Back to Black proves that her material is stronger than the hype ever was. "Tears Dry on Their Own" proudly recalls Motown classics, while cuts like "Wake Up Alone," "Some Unholy War" and "Love Is a Losing Game" show what the English singer could do when she stopped cribbing a posed toughness from American hip-hop songs.
She may be best known for some of the most achingly romantic and oft-heartbroken songs in pop-music history, but early R&B's blonde bombshell was no sad sack. Fierce, soulful and unafraid to make her demands known, James broke out with "The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry)," a response song to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me Annie" that told a man just what needed to be done to please her. She went on to make a name for herself with songs that gave voice to both a woman's emotional needs and sexual demands.
The first full-length from one of the most brilliant soul singers ever displays his reverence for idols such as Sam Cooke (on a very faithful cover of "You Send Me") as well as the energy and emotion that would set him apart. Hard-charging originals such as "Security" and "Hey Hey Baby" provide the energy. Perfect ballads "These Arms of Mine" and the title track give you a feel for the emotion, which Redding didn't perform so much as inhabit.
Nikka is a veteran of this blue-eyed retro-soul game, and don't you forget it. Released on her own Go Funk Yourself label (in conjunction with Stax), Pebble to a Pearl grooves harder -- to the ear and from the heart -- than lead single "Stuck to You." The title track is a Chaka Khan-tinged funk workout with an uplifting message: shine on! The bruised-but-not-broken "Someone for Everyone" is best paired with red wine and a box of tissues. "Cry Baby" is as icy as it wants to be: "Go ahead and cry baby, cry baby all night long / 'cause I need a little something to make me feel better."
On her third effort, Stone says the sound of her album finally reflects her musical vision -- hence the title Introducing Joss Stone. Not that you'd really notice. Sure, producer Raphael Saadiq has laid down some funky, downright contemporary-sounding beats, but like her other two albums, it's how effortlessly the soul flows from this nineteen-year-old -- and how easy and joyful she makes it all sound -- that you notice. With envy. The first single, "Tell Me 'Bout It" could be Aretha's "Rock Steady" for a new generation, and you can't get a better compliment than that.
For her follow-up to 1989's smash hit Nick of Time, Bonnie Raitt wisely doesn't stray from the formula that had finally brought her commercial success: light country blues, bits of adult contemporary and heaps of broke-down blockbuster ballads to show off her world-weary vocals (if "I Can't Make You Love Me" has never made you cry, we worry about your soul). If her voice is at times a bit too pristinely pitch-perfect (see the Irish-kissed "One Part Be My Lover"), well, that's not much of a complaint to weather. She's best at a slow burn, as on the aptly titled "Tangled and Dark."
Our first thought is that The Story is more proof that the Pacific Northwest is the new Nashville and Brandi Carlile the second coming of Patsy Cline (via Melissa Etheridge and singer-songwriters including Jeff Buckley, Stevie Nicks, and Elton John) or, rather, the singer Patsy wasn't allowed to be. But although Carlile knows what to do when life hands you a blue yodel and a bucketful of lemons (duh, make a country song -- and spiked lemonade), country is too limiting and singer-songwriter too bland to attest to the breadth of richness her voice is capable of.
It's tempting to imagine The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as an hour-plus breakup note to Wyclef Jean, her former Fugees paramour; "Lost Ones," a scathing dis track, is obviously aimed at him. But she's not aiming at Wyclef or Rohan, the Marley scion with whom she birthed her son Zion, but the idea of romance itself. She unlooses herself from codependency on the lovely "Ex-Factor," lectures young couples on the brash and knowing "Doo Wop (That Thing)," and even gives her listeners an earful on the hectoring Y2K-paranoia of "Final Hour." The neo-soul arrangements and occasional Wu-Tang samples underline Hill's journey of painful self-awareness.
Phil Spector's grand experiment with Ike and Tina Turner starts off at the pinnacle with that grandiose opera of a title track. The combo of Tina's balls-to-the-wall voice and Spector's famed Wall of Sound never quite reaches the same heights again: His echoing style softens her voice, along with the grittiness of the Turners' usual sound (plus, Ike was mostly kept out of the studio). But that's only relatively speaking. In terms of the classic R&B sound, it's hard to beat the juicy cuts here, which lean toward funk and are all powered by Tina's inimitable fierceness.
Alberta Hunter's first recordings were in 1921. By the time this 1978 album was cut, the pioneering blues singer had recorded in six different decades. Although Hunter is 83 years old here, she sings with a surprising snappiness, and the songs -- which cross up blues, jazz and R&B -- sound anything but old, thanks to her hot backing band.
