Northern Soul's Classiest Rarities, Vol. 2

Great sounding and dense with information is a true labor of love, compiling 24 solid tracks on the label, a follow-up to the first volume released in 2001, four years before this wonderful sequel. It is sonically superior to another 2001 classic, on , the huge quantity of these anthologies from this music genre almost as overwhelming as the 45 rpm singles they collect. delivers 12 pages of liner notes on slick paper rife with photographs and copies of the actual labels from some of the 45s contained herein. The music is breathtakingly magical, the beat driving sliding quickly into 's hardcore merging with '60s creating sweet confections that stand up to repeated, endless spins. and combine to write the superb as voiced by , produced by the legendary / combo. It's followed by 's dynamite version of also recorded by original drummer , as well as . The song lineage here will no doubt make fans' mouths water for more versions of these hard-to-find classics. ' rendition goes for a good hundred dollars if you can find it, 's version that's included here is probably even rarer as it came from a demo. For students of the genre, 's liner notes are thorough and worth putting on the xerox machine to enlarge and cherish as you read them and listen to with performing which sounds like ' all rolled into one -- and how can you not help but love that! is bright and full of fun, reminiscent of though more up-tempo. is also a standout, but there's not a bad track on these two dozen sides which have not only stood the test of time, they've escaped total obscurity by virtue of their inclusion here. ~ Joe Viglione