Various - Blues & Soul Masters

Warner Music - 2002 - CD 1 (64 mins) CD 2 (76 mins)

The compilation album just seems to go from strength to strength. Thanks for this can usually be laid at the door of a clever (or not so clever) marketing department, depending on your taste and gullibility. Once you can tap into a genre or give an old one a new spin, the compilation possibilities are endless - at least for the less-discerning music fan. Apart from tracking down lost underground gems on vinyl, there doesn't seem to be a point to them, except convenience.

So Warner had a poke around the archives (without getting too dusty) to furnish yet another compilation bereft of imagination. Sure there are plenty of classics here but if you guessed the track list before reading it you'd figure out most of what makes it on. For instance, did you get Booker T & The MG's 'Green Onions'? Muddy Waters 'Mannish Boy' or Otis Redding's '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay'? No? What about Percy Sledge's 'When A Man Loves A Woman' or Ben E King's 'Stand By Me'. Probably the only good think about this album is that you get to hear some of last century's best divas belting out big soul hits like Nina Simone's powerful 'I Put A Spell On You' or Erma Franklin sounding like Janis Joplin on 'Take A Little Piece Of My Heart'.

Don't get me wrong; all are commendable classics but we're SICK of them. They've been done to death and who knows how many even more amazing tracks are gathering dust in the bowels of record company vaults. Why not tempt us with contemporary tracks we haven't heard before but are just as worthy? Warner Music must take credit for the excellent 'Natural High' compilations, so why not keep them coming? Most of the tracks here have been rotated more times than the earth - so why patronise listeners with jaded selections when this compilation could have exposed them to unknown music of the same or better caliber? And why no early James Brown?

Sinéad Gleeson

Tracklisting CD1: Soul Man (Sam & Dave) - Respect (Aretha Franklin) - Green Onions (Booker T & The MG's - I'd Rather Go Blind (Etta James) - I'm In The Mood (John Lee Hooker) - Take Me To The River (Al Green) - Take A Little Piece of My Heart (Erma Franklin) - In The Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett) - Clean Up Woman (Betty Wright) - Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters) - Knock On Wood (Eddie Floyd) - I'm A Road Runner (Jr. Walker & The All Stars) - Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley) - Everybody Needs Someone To Love (Solomon Burke) - 5-10-15 Hours (Ruth Brown) - Memphis Soul Stew (King Curtis) - Walking The Dog (Rufus Thomas) - Crying In The Chapel (Mavis Staples) - Stormy Monday (Little Milton) - I Put A Spell On You (Nina Simone) - Stay With Me (Lorraine Ellison) - Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding

Tracklisting CD2: When A Man Loves A Woman (Percy Sledge) - Born Under A Bad Sign (Albert King) - Think (Aretha Franklin) - Going To A Go Go (Smokey Robinson) - What I'd Say (Ray Charles) - My Guy (Mary Wells) - Under The Boardwalk (The Drifters) - Smokestack Lightnin' (Howlin' Wolf) - Dust My Broom (Elmore James) - I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Anne Peebles) - Private Number (Judy Clay and William Bell) - I'll Take You There (The Staples Singers) - Rainy Night In Georgia (Brook Benton) - The Thrill Is Gone (BB King) - Need Your Love So Bad (Fleetwood Mac) - Drift Away (Dobie Gray) - High Heel Sneakers (Tommy Tucker) - I'll Be The Other Woman (Soul Children) - Stand By Me (Ben E. King) - Midnight Train To Georgia (Gladys Knight) - Oh No Not My Baby (Maxine Brown) - Chains Of Love (Joe Turner) - If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want To Be Right (Millie Jackson)