{"id":16965,"date":"2019-06-11T05:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T09:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16965"},"modified":"2019-06-11T07:18:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T11:18:00","slug":"album-review-various-artists-soul-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/11\/album-review-various-artists-soul-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Various Artists — Soul Explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There’s undeniable appeal in retrospective compilations. With the benefit of hindsight and historical context, compilers can curate a set of songs that displays the character of a given theme, be it a style of music, a genre, or a survey of a particular label’s output. Legendary Memphis label Stax has been the subject of quite a few such comps: the Complete Stax\/Volt Singles<\/i> \u2013 a series of four box sets to date \u2013 amass something like 40 CDs worth of music (I don’t have the CDs handy; they’re in the next room, and I have a 20-year-old cat sleeping on my lap, so just trust me on this). And there have been many others including an Isaac Hayes retrospective and a 9CD set that collects everything Stax put out in a singe year, 1968.<\/p>\n

But there’s a special kind of value in a different sort of compilation: the kind that serves as a slice in time, put together without the advantage of context or hindsight. And at or near its height, Stax did just such a ting. They put together a 2LP set called Soul Explosion<\/i>. Long out of print, and never reissued during the CD era (save for a Japanese release of dubious legality), Soul Explosion<\/i> is a wonderfully idiosyncratic, wildly varied collection of 27 songs from the venerated label. And in 2019, Craft Recordings has brought the double-LP back to life with a faithfully reproduced vinyl reissue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Casual listeners may think they have Stax pegged: a set like this features the likes of Johnnie Taylor, the Staple Singers, Albert King and Booker T & the MGs, right? Well, yes: all of those artists are represented on Soul Explosion<\/em>, and in select cases their best-known work is featured. Taylor’s \u201cWho’s Making Love\u201d opens the album. And the oft-comped \u201cPrivate Number\u201d a soulful duet featuring William Bell and Judy Clay, is here as well. Searing blues master King gets two tracks, as do the Bar-Kays.<\/p>\n

But some left-field cuts from the label undercut the idea that Stax was solely soul. \u201cSmell of Incense\u201d by Southwest F.O.B. is a slice of light psychedelia. The MGs’ \u201cHang ‘Em High\u201d is centered around Jones’ organ work, but it’s not at all like, say \u201cGreen Onions\u201d (not<\/i> comped here). Neither is \u201cSoul Limbo,\u201d a kinetic number that \u2013 thanks to Jones’ rinky-dink organ tones \u2013 would be just right for a roller skating session. Not to mention the track’s unexpected and delightful marimba solo!<\/p>\n

The Mad Lads’ \u201cSo Nice\u201d reached the lower rungs of the R&B Top 40 in 1968 (#35) but a half century later, it’s not at all well known. Slightly better known id Eddie Floyd’s virtual reinvention of \u201cBring it On Home to Me,\u201d #4 on the R&B charts and #17 on the mainstream charts. The spiritual\/protest\/gospel of The Staple Singers’ \u201cLong Walk to D.C.\u201d adds a bit of timely social relevance to the set. Far less serious \u2013 but undeniably fun \u2013 is \u201cCopy Kat,\u201d an apt title for a Bar-Kays song that continues the group’s (admittedly irresistible) tail-chasing practice of seeing how many variations on \u201cSoul Finger\u201d it can produce.<\/p>\n

A few relative obscurities surface on Soul Explosion<\/i>. The blues\/soul workout of Muscle Shoals artist Jimmy Hughes’ \u201cPeeped Around Yonders Bend\u201d is a non-charting single that deserves wider hearing. And the heavy psych (fuzz guitar plus horns!) of Southwest F.O.B.’s \u201cMercy, Mercy, Mercy\u201d is an initially unrecognizable cover of the Joe Zawinul song popularized by Cannonball Adderley. It simply must be heard.<\/p>\n

\"\"On its original release, Soul Explosion<\/i> barely dented the album chart, reaching a desultory #172 on the Billboard<\/i> 200. In 2019 it’s one of the best possible ways to travel safely back to 1969. The 2LP set features faithful reproduction of the original release’s gatefold jacket, and careful remastering from the best sources available.<\/p>\n

NOTE<\/b>: A bit of elucidation may be in order. In conjunction with the reissue of Soul Explosion<\/i>, Craft Recordings has put together a Spotify playlist called, reasonably enough, \u201cStax Soul Explosion.\u201d Listeners should note that the 55-song playlist is expertly curated, and features lots of gems that any self-respecting lover of soul will already have in his or her collection. But it’s worth noting that the only connection between the playlist and the 2LP set of the same name is \u2026 the name. There is exactly zero<\/i> overlap song-wise between the two. Both are great, but they’re not<\/i> the same thing. Just sayin’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s undeniable appeal in retrospective compilations. With the benefit of hindsight and historical context, compilers can curate a set of songs that displays the character of a given theme, be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,57,60,62,64,65,69,73],"tags":[3800,3892,2032],"class_list":["post-16965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-psych","category-rb","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-craft-recordings","tag-soul-explosion","tag-stax","cat-19-id","cat-57-id","cat-60-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16965"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16986,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16965\/revisions\/16986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}