Consumer Guide Album

Johnnie Taylor: Johnnie Taylor's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 [Stax, 1970]
Heir to Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers and Otis Redding at Stax, Taylor is everything you could ask for a soul singer except great. Gritty, rhythmic, and felt just aren't enough--there has to be something absolutely distinctive in the phrasing and timbre, and he's always been a little vague in both departments. But on this compilation there's plenty of definition from Don Davis, who has production and writing credit on five of the six cuts on side two, an examination of monogamy and its vicissitudes that will shortly be covered whole by none other than Charley Pride. (Just kidding.) A−