Well yet another month has gone by and boy have I had trouble trying
to find a nice selection of albums that would tempt me to part with my
hard earned cash.  Due to the slowdown of general album releases, I
have taken the opportunity to buy some excellent compilation and
greatest hits albums.  So for those of you who are interested and who
may not have these already in your collections check this list out.

1. With These Songs – The Best of Roberta Flack (Atlantic Records)
includes tracks like The Closer I Get To You, The First Time Ever I Saw
Your Face, Back Together again.
2. SuperFunk Presents – FunkSoulSisters (BGP Records). This is
compilation album of 20 classic and rear female funk tracks such as Only
A Fool – Loleatta Holloway, Ooh-Wee Baby – Delilah Moore, My Softly
Heart Took A Licking (But It Kept On Ticking) – Millie Jackson and Mr Fix
It – Thelma Jones.
3. Natural High 3 – Various (Warner Music UK Records) This album
contains what is described as 2-step soul, boogie fusion and rare
groove tracks from 1974-1982.  Expect to hear tracks like Something To
Fall Back On – Margie Jospeh, Doin’ It – Gwen McCrae, Settle For My
Love – Patrice Rushen, Is It Love You’re After – Spyder Turner.
4. Greatest Hits – Brenda Russell (AM Records) includes tracks such as
Piano In The Dark, In The Thick Of It, Le Restaurant and If Only For One
Night.
5. Greatest Hits – Teena Marie (Motown Records) includes tracks like
Behind The Groove, Portuguese Love, I’m A Sucker For Your Love and It
Must Be Magic.

Finally the sounds of ragga and dancehall is a regular occurrence now
in the majority of the charts with RnB and Rap artists collaborating with
the likes of Beenie Man, Sean Paul and Elephant Man.  These artists
have been around for many many years and they, like many others in
their field have enjoyed long standing popularity in the UK for just as
long.  If you would like to have a taste of what I call traditional old style
reggae, I suggest you invest in the following albums on Trojan Records.

1. Young, Gifted And Black - a double album of 50 classic reggae
tracks by The Pioneers – Long Shot Kick The Bucket, Jimmy Cliff -Many
Rivers To Cross, The Paragons  - The Tide Is High and two of my all time
favourites Uptown Top Ranking – Althea & Donna, Barry Biggs – Side
Show.
2. Trojan Rocksteady Box Set – a limited edition 3 cd collection of 50
tracks such as Beautiful and Dangerous – Desmond Decker, To Sir With
Love With Love – Lyn Taitt & The Jets, and The Time Has Come – The
Versatiles
3. Trojan Lovers Box Set  - a limited edition 3 cd collection of 50 tracks
such as Love Me For A Reason – The Fab Five Inc., Silly Wasn’t I –
Sharon Forrester, You Make Me Feel Brand New – Inner Circle.

So what will I be reviewing this time, well like I said earlier, there isn’t
much around that has captured my attention. But what have I got for
you all this time? Read further to find out why don’t you….....

Jamelia ~ Thank You

.Jamelia is her name and UK RnB is her game!
Jamelia Davis is not a newcomer in the music
business, she has been around for a few years
and this is her third album.  In years gone by
her single got as high as No. 5 in the UK charts
(track called Money), and this all while still in her
teenage years.  Soon after the release and
success of her next single, she dropped out of
the music scene to give birth to her daughter.

She is now back in business and ready for action with her latest album
Thank You.  One of the tracks from this album has remained in the British
charts for 4 months reaching No.3 in the National Charts.  So what tracks
have I chosen…..

Bout
Track 9 on this album and also the first released track.  Though this didn’
t get much airplay and didn’t show in the charts, I think this is one of the
better tracks on the album.  If I were she, I’d talk the record company
into re-releasing it again in the summer.  I believe this is a strong RnB
dance track, which could make any party pretty jumping.  Those of you
who remember and liked her old track Money will probably hook onto this
one too.  Though that track is years old, I’m sure I can here slight
similarities between the two.  But it definitely works for me.  One of my
key favourites.

Superstar
Now to be honest, when I first heard this song, I thought it was ok,
wasn’t ‘musically offensive’ like some songs can be. (I won’t talk about
that here, well not now anyway).  But the more I heard it, the more I
grew to love it.  It’s understandable why it has remained in the charts for
so long 4 months!  It’s a catchy little number, that you can’t help tapping
your feet along too.  There’s nothing musically flash about this track, I
think it’s a good basic dance track that deserves its popularity.

See It In A Boy’s Eyes

I’ve chosen this song because I feel it has a cute mature atmosphere
about it.  I like the uncomplicated lyrics, the way they match the simple
melodic melody of the piano and other accompanying instruments.

Cutie

I’ve been trying to think of where I’ve heard this particular kind of beat
before.  It reminds me a little of a rap/hip hop track that came out last
year sometime, you might know the track I mean, had a female artist
saying alot of ‘boy, boy, boy, oh boy’ in the background whilst the rapper
did his thing on top of it.  But that aside, the reasoning for picking this
track, well it will be one of those I’ll probably play loud and proud in car
in summer on my Mstation.  This is a great girls cruising tune.  It borders
slightly on the harder side of RnB and the gentler side of hip-hop I feel.

Thank You

The title track of the album and another big hit in the UK here.  If you
listen closely to the lyrics of this track you can see why so many people,
but women especially love it.  There are many women out there who will
identify with words of this song.  The melody maybe unpretentious, but
the lyrical content is strong and direct.  She is singing about something
that was such a negative point in her life, but her positive message, that
light at the end of the tunnel shines through with the lasting words of
‘You taught me some lessons, those are my blessings, that won’t
happen again, Thank You’.  This is a song about strength, and I hope
that somewhere out there, there are those who may find their own
strength from this positive song.

N*E*R*D ~  Fly or Die

Right I know some of you may be thinking, why
has this girl included this album.  Well, because I
really like it.  I believe this group throws
together so many ingredients for the many
different areas of music as we know it.  They
can do Hip Hop, they can do RnB, Rock, Grunge,
etc etc.  So they may not be everyone’s ‘cup of
tea’, but they ooze talent, that’s why they have
a long list of people just waiting to work with
them.  

Who says you have to be black to do Soul or RnB?  Look at Joss Stone
for example or Kiley Dean.  Where is it written that you must be white
to do Rock?   Music should have no boundaries; everyone loves some
kind of music no matter what it is.  These three ensure that boundaries
do not exist in their musical world, and I think I understand where they’
re coming from. With that said, I’m not going to review any individual
tracks from this I like them all and too be honest I’m still wrestling with
descriptions for these.  One thing I can tell you is that I’m loving
‘Backseat Love’, ‘Wonderful Place’, ‘The Way She Dances’, ‘She Wants
To Move’, ‘Breakout’ and ‘Don’t Worry About It’.  

Well I still had trouble this issue with the lack of choice here.  What is
going on out there in the music biz??  I hope to have a special interview
for you all with one of the artist reviewed by me previously.  So, till the
next time, if you one fill a soft warmness on your cheek and no one
seems close, you may have been kissed by The Angel.  I thought I’d
leave you my chosen music themed quote by Benjamin Britten;

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the
beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The
beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love.  The cruel beauty
of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.

This is your musical earth angel, Angel Delight signing out!

You can reach Angel to exchange music ideas by writing to:
angeldelightatrhythmflowdotnet