Consumer Guide Album

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: What Love Has Joined Together [Gordy, 1970]
At first this seems disgracefully skimpy--six romantic ballads totalling 27:36, including a slow "My Cherie Amour," a cover of Herb Alpert's vocal debut, and one count-it one (old Mary Wells) tune by Smokey himself, for title and "concept." Then you notice a gliss, a chuckle, a soulful paragraph or two, and realize that he's singing even more exquisitely than usual. Then, if you're me, you get annoyed at the Mo-on-the-town arrangements, with their full string sections and muted trumpets. And then, if you're me, you find yourself transformed by the urge to act as nice as Smokey himself. B+