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A great little album from Jeannie Reynolds – and her lasting contribution to underground soul! Jeannie's vocals are nice and deep – with hints of southern diva phrasing, filtered through some of the tighter soul styles coming out of Chicago and other points north at the time! Detroit talents LJ Reynolds, Tony Hester, and Don Davis produce – save for one song by Michael Henderson – and the big highlight is the slow groover "The Fruit Song", a sly seductive stepper of a track, with rolling congas, sweeping strings, and a very catchy hook from Jeannie. That number runs for about 7 minutes long – and the album also includes a number of nice shorter cuts, like "I've Still Got My Pride", "The Feelin' Ain't There", and "You Want To Get Your Hands On A Woman" – all wonderful numbers that will have you loving Jeannie as one of your favorite new discoveries in 70s soul!

Sweet keyboard soul from Benjamin – a cut that's definitely got an 80s soul vibe at times, but which also shares something with the hip hop generation as well! "Love" is a charmer right from the start – loping beats, warm keys, and this vocal that definitely lets the groove lead the way! Beats are even better on "Not A Moment" – a tune that's got this slow-stepping, percolating vibe that's really wonderful – building just at the right speed, and feeling like some old school jam from back in the day!

Guess what? They DO make 'em like they used to – as Amalia steps out here on two tracks that easily rival the best female soul from the early 80s! "Welcome To Me" feels just like Chaka Khan on Warner Brothers from 1982 – complete with sweet keyboards that percolate wonderfully alongside the soaring lead vocals! "Bonafide" is even better – a funky funky number with a really partyful groove right from the start – romping in a wonderful 80s way!

Fantastic funk from Tony Ozier – an artist with a groove that's quite different than most of the other contemporary acts on the scene! "Funk" has a brilliant blend of basslines and keyboards that's right up there with the early Zapp generation – tightly soaring, with riffing guitar – and a simple, straight, instrumental groove that's right on the money all the way through! "Back To The Mitten" is another instrumental gem – these cool moogy lines over spacier keyboards – all set to spare beats with a wonderful feel!

Wonderfully baroque funk from the great O'Donel Levy! The album's got some very cool arrangements by Manny Albam that mix together strings and funk – in a super-dope way that sounds a lot like the work coming out of Cadet during the late 60s – and the rest of the set features Levy playing with a smaller group, one that includes Chester Thompson on drums and Charles Covington on organ. The approach is great on both types of sets – complicatedly funky, in a way that's held up incredibly well over the years – and which warrants greater discovery of Levy's work from the time. The album's got covers of "We've Only Just Begun", "Let's Stay Together" and "It's Too Late" – plus some groovy originals like "Cherries", "The Chocolate Horse", "Ideal", and "Breeding of Mind".