★★★★★
The second half of the 70s was unkind to the Chi-Lites. The group that had been the toast of the town early in the decade, with #1 hits like "Oh Girl" and "Have You Seen Her," disintegrated in 1975 alongside their record label, Brunswick. Group lead singer and songwriter, Eugene Record, threw up his hands and decided he could do bad all by himself, signing on for a three album deal with Warner Brothers that resulted in exactly zero hits...
- www.soultracks.com
2011-03-07
★★★★★
They were indeed both "Chi" (from Chicago) and "Lite", if by that word we mean lushly uptown '70s soul with a sweet tooth. Eugene Record was a terrifically gifted writer/producer/falsetto lead singer, who hit his stride with such gorgeous, ever so slightly kitsch hits as "Have You Seen Her" ('71), "Oh Girl" and the crushingly sad "Coldest Days of My Life (Pt 1)" (both '72). But The Chi-Lites could also do ghetto-funk ("Give More Power To The People", "We Are Neighbors") with cred and panache...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
The CD above is not exactly the copy I'm reviewing from. That would be Butterfly Entertainment's Music Club release, The Very Best Of The Chi-Lites, a 1991 purchase whose 'Pound Shop chocolate-box' packaging now looks offensively half-assed...
- www.mojo4music.com
2010-03-18
★★★★★
Diamond Dogs is often cited as the beginning of Bowie's cocaine psychosis period. In fact, it was recorded before he started giving Hitler salutes at railway stations and aggravating Eastern European customs officers with the books on Goebbels he carried in his rucksack, and now presents something of a field day for hindsight-lovers...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2009-08-29
★★★★★
Though a drummer, Marvin Gaye's achievements are seldom thought to lie in the rhythm bed. He was notably adrift during disco, his technique too liquid, too subtle for four-on-the-floor pummelling (or maybe not...!) Aside from the title track, few tunes on The Funk Collection are recognised floor-fillers, but sweet Jesus, do they groove?...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2009-08-29
★★★★★
Argue the toss, if you like, over the pre-eminent genius of the first three Go-Betweens albums, or the two recent reunion sets. But when the tossing's over, the three Go-Betweens albums composed circa 1986-88 in a rush of creative late youth and London poverty will always be the beauties, the gold standards. The ones you reach for to convert others to the fond and tender charms of Brisbane odd couple Robert Forster and Grant McLennan...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2009-08-29
★★★★★
It's OK that producer-singer-songwriter Eugene Record has written an entire album for the male supplicant he created. But it's not OK that except for the folk-kitsch masterpiece "Oh Girl" (a/k/a "Oh That Harmonica") not one of these songs is going to get him what he wants--true love, a roll in the hay, a hit single, anything...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-02-27
★★★★★
They're still a better-than-average harmony group, but their moment is past, and although they continue to handle brisk tempos more deftly than the competition their accommodations to disco are just that--compromises, not expansions...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-02-26
★★★★★
The Delfonics and the Moments may have staked first claim on Eugene Record's love man, but Record demolishes the competition, if such a macho concept is permissible in this context (and it certainly is). Not only does he outwrite the other fellas, he doesn't trip over his bassman when the tempo speeds up or make a fool of himself when analyzing the dilemmas of contemporary civilization...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-01-26
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