Customer Reviews

Zealous Records Presents: Soul Sides 1

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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I've been a fan of soul-sides.com for about a year. I've always found the site to be an incredible source for fans of soul and funk music. I pre-ordered the disc and have been spinning it non-stop since it arrived last week. I'm not super deep into soul music so I found this album to be an incredible starting point. It had a few names I recongnized (Donny Hathaway, Erma Franklin) but the majority of stuff I had never heard before. The first track "Keep My Baby Warm" just blows me away, everything you want to hear in a soul song. The track listing flows perfectly and is an amazing record for driving or having a little get down. Honestly, its just a fantastic record. There are a ton of soul music comps out there to choose from, but this one stands out.

Nothing over-produced - all you get are amazing voices and performances to raise the hairs on your neck. This is what singing is about - excellent songs, great voices and oustanding performances that draws you into the song and relays the feelings, emotions and depth of a 3-minute story - simply amazing.

Don't worry that you might not recognize everyone on this CD - you will not love this CD because these are obscure or for nostalgia sake ... within 5 seconds of track 1 KEEP MY BABY WARM - you'll wonder how you ever lived without this CD.

So, not only will the performances of these artists make you weep, this CD will remind you how far we've drifted from "real music."

And you click like mad on Amazon.com wondering where Volume 2 is.

Zealous records got this compilation absolutely right! This collection of 14 soul tracks is a perfect inrtroduction to those unfamilar with soul music, while also being deep unough to satisfy the most knowledgable of heads. It contains tracks from artists that almost anyone will recognize...Donnie Hathaway, Weldon Irvine, William Bell, and Joe Bataan and has works from some more obscure folks like Clarence Reid and Erma Franklin. Check out the original version of Piece of My Heart. Also, don't mistake the Sharon Jones track as something from 1971...this anmd others on the compilation were released just recently. That just proves that soul music, true soul music, is timeless. Just like this compilation! Check out the soul-sides.com site were music g.o.d. Oliver O-dub Wang breaks down each track on the album. I highly recommend this album to all human beings! DD

A pleasurable addition to my soul collection. Beautiful. Nice to know that R & B is a powerful art; to bad these days it has lost quality. The cd displays the possiblities and magnificence of R&B to move the soul. the selection of songs is tasteful and progresses smoothly. i just can't say anything bad about this record!

Oliver Wang is an ethnic-studies professor, music critic, and audio blogger who has put together a collection of 14 rare and not so hard to find soul and gospel soul songs in this album. Many of these gripping and enlightening soul songs were out of production until now, including Aretha Franklin's sister Erma's original track of "Piece of My Heart", and soul songs by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Clarence Reid, Weldon Irvine and others.

Wang's scholarly interest in ethnic studies is evident in his selection of Joe Bataan's superb "Ordinary Guy," in which Bataan captivatingly captures the intensive interplay of class and race: "I don't drive a beautiful car and I don't own an elegant home . . . /I'm just an ordinary, ordinary guy/Afro Filipino, average sort of guy/. . . you left behind . . .".

Absorbing, sublime, and transcendant - this excellent 14-track album will further enhance Oliver Wang's growing reputation as an audio blogger and music critic. You really can't get a better deal than this if you like your soul REAL SOUL.

hip hop heads should listen to this. my favorite is everything PERIOD!!!! particularly WHAT A MAN by lynette lindell (i did not know that she was white!!!!) and MORNING SUNRISE by weldon irvine. oh, and i cannot forget PIECE OF MY HEART by erma franklin. this is the type of soul that will make me actually drink lemonade if ya dig me.

I heard some cuts from Soul Sides 2 on NPR and liked it immediately so decided to order Volume 1 as well. Well I loved the songs on Soul Sides Volume 2 but Volume 1 was a disappointment. The first 5 songs on V.1 all sound the same. It's hard to differentiate one song from the next. Such as Keep My Baby Warm by Charles May, Masterpiece by Clarence Reid, and No More Sad Songs by Amanda Ambrose all have that 50's music sound - kinda boring (and I'm no spring chicken). V. 2 selections have more flavor such as the hot Fever by Sharon Cash, the gut wrenching Home is Where the Hatred Is by Esther Phillips, and the danceable Che che Cole by the Afro Beat Orchestra is a lot of fun. V. 2 gets my vote but V. 1 is boring!

There are much better soul compilations out there than Soul Sides 1. The only reason to get it is for Lee Moses' rare Time & Place (1970), Johnny Guitar Watson's Lovin' You (1974) and Sharon Jones' All Over Again (2005).

The inconsistent quality of this collection makes it hard to listen again. Joe Bataan's smooth jazz Ordinary Guy does not fit. No More Sad Songs by Amanda Ambrose is laughably bad. Linda Lyndell's What A Man has been played to death. Piece of My Heart was popularized by Janis Joplin (why include it here?) Jealous Guy is by John Lennon. Doesn't Donny Hathaway have any original songs?

The set is needlessly short (clocking in at only 47 minutes). CDs can hold up to 80 minutes.

[DW]