Search - Various Artists :: Smooth Grooves: A Sensual Collection, Vol. 8

Fair slow jams collection

Greg Brady | Capital City | 03/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rhino typically throws together great hit-packed collections but this is somewhat of an exception. The biggest chart hit here is #1 R&B hit "(Pop,Pop,Pop,Pop) Goes my Mind" from Levert. Outside of that, there are 3 R&B top 10s and one that just missed ("Magic Man" hit #11 for Robert Winters and Fall in 1980) with the rest being album tracks.



The great Stylistics soundalike "Country Girl (You're my Everything)"[didn't chart] astounds with some thrilling falsetto work. Millie Jackson's epic album cover of "(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don't Want to be Right"[didn't chart] brings every married woman's worst fears to life as Millie points out the problems with chasing someone who's already taken but then goes on to a laundry list of why she'd RATHER be with a married man..'the sweetest thing about the whole sitation is..that when you go to the laundromat you don't have to wash nobody's funky drawers but your own'. An album track from Atlantic Starr is wonderful ("Let's Get Closer")[didn't chart]. The Levert track ("(Pop,Pop,Pop,Pop) Goes my Mind") was a deserved #1 on the R&B charts.



Lesser tracks are one hit wonder Black Ice with "Blind Over You"[didn't chart] (their dance number "Shake Down Pt. 1" was a minor hit), a Patti LaBelle cover of "If You Don't Know me by Know"[#79 R&B,1986] from a 1985 concert in D.C., is pretty but it won't make you forget Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 1972 hit rendition. "Come Share My Love" was a pretty sizable hit (#5 R&B,1986) but just doesn't have the timeless quality it needs to still sound good these days.



BOTTOM LINE:

If you're just looking for slow dance music, there are better collections. But if you're looking to find some "new" songs you may not know, the low charters (and non charters) here hide some gems.



3 1/2 stars"