Search - The Supremes, Diana Ross :: Never Before Released

ABOVE AVERAGE MATERIAL; SOME VERY GOOD PERFORMANCES

VINCENT P TARSITANO | PORT ORANGE, FL USA | 07/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a big Supremes fan, this is one collection I would not be without. The main assets here are the songs themselves---an above average collection of material---and excellent performances by the singers, arrangers and players.



The minuses would be the lack of a concept: here you have some custom-tailored originals, as well as some very good Motown covers, plus selections from a proposed--and shelved--Supremes Disney collection, as well as previously unreleased Christmas tunes. An additional minus is the remastering. [When I put these songs side-by-side with tunes from other early Supremes albums to make a custom collection, those songs were much brighter and clearer, while the ones from this collection sound more muted and muddy.]



Since there are about 17 rather wonderful original Motown songs here, the producers could have chosen to create separate collections, one including originals, another featuring the Disney and/or Broadway stuff, and another as part of a Christmas collection.



It's a shame that there wasn't more thought and care applied [or a Motown Select branch of Hip-o!] back then. There also was very skimpy artwork and notes included.



My suggestion to Hip-o-Select would be to take some of these tunes and remix them and re-release them with some semblance of a theme. In fact, these tunes are far superior to many included on Hip-o's expanded WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO and THERE'S A PLACE FOR US sets!



In summary, the songcraft, production and performaces of this collection are strongly above average. [Many of Motown's brightest: Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson, Norman Whitfield, have material represented here.] The remastering stinks. But, there is a definite opportunity here to include much of this material in future collections, with superior mixing and mastering and artwork and notes."