Let Your Hair Down is a follow-up to Steve Miller's Bingo! from 2010, and the tracks for this new release were recorded at the same sessions at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch studio with Andy Johns engineering and co-producing, and like Bingo!, Let Your Hair Down finds Miller re-exploring his Chicago blues roots. Miller and his band have always included a few old blues numbers in their concerts, so these are road-tested gems that are obviously close to Miller's heart and soul, and they include the last recordings of Miller's longtime collaborator (and harmonica whiz) Norton Buffalo, who died of lung cancer in 2009 shortly after these sessions. Miller has always had the ability to adapt blues forms into his pop work, but this outing, like Bingo!, is a full-fledged blues record, not a pop one, and fans of his classic rock should be aware that Miller, although his lead guitar work is everywhere here, doesn’t do all of the singing, with Sonny Charles and others handling lead vocals on some of the cuts. That said, Let Your Hair Down feels like a more realized snapshot of Miller's blues adaptations than even the highly admired Bingo! was, and although it’s difficult to imagine the blues being exactly joyous, there is a passionate joy in these time-tested grooves, and it’s obvious both of these albums have been a labor of love for Miller and his band. Miller doesn’t pop-style these cuts up, either -- this is the blues as he sees it, and thankfully he’s as sly and charming as ever here. Highlights include a delightfully tense version of Muddy Waters' “Can’t Be Satisfied,” a grooved-out take on Rosco Gordon's “Just a Little Bit,” a Jimmy Reed cover, “Close Together,” fine takes on Willie Dixon's “Pretty Thing” and “Love the Life I Live,” and a visit to Robert Johnson territory with “Sweet Home Chicago.” The next obvious step would be for someone to package Let Your Hair Down and Bingo! together in a single package, because both albums work as complementary bookends.© Steve Leggett /TiVo

The 58-track Never My Love: The Anthology, very different from the 61-track French and Japanese release Someday We'll All Be Free (2010), appeals slightly more to fanatics than it does newcomers. Disc one covers Donny Hathaway's singles and albums highlights, from 1969 and 1972 A-sides recorded with June Conquest through 1978's "You Were Meant for Me." There's a lot of familiar ground, all of it representative, but many selections differ from the album counterparts, including the two-part 7" version of "The Ghetto," the promo edit of "Thank You Master (For My Soul)," and single edits of "Giving Up," "A Song for You," and "Come Little Children." The second disc consists of unreleased studio recordings, none of which overlaps with the material unearthed on Someday We'll All Be Free. Unfortunately, that means Hathaway's cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" isn't present, but there are two slices of hard and heavy soul that date from the late '60s, a mighty interpretation of "Never My Love" (a platinum hit for the Association), the gorgeously bittersweet "Memory of Our Love," and a fascinating 20-minute concerto. Other tracks, not quite aimless but sensibly left in the archive, help fans fill in the gaps of the mid- to late-'70s period when Hathaway's creativity was severely impaired. Disc three, all newly issued as well, is like an alternate, not quite as hot edition of Live. It draws from the eight sets Hathaway performed during three October 1971 nights at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. None of it was included on any of the previous Hathaway live albums, yet they're no mere scraps, highlighted by similarly sprawling trips through "Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)" and "The Ghetto" that involve tremendous interplay between Hathaway and his formidable band. Finally, the last quarter of the anthology contains all of the 1972 classic Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, as well as three additional Roberta/Donny duets produced by giants James Mtume and Reggie Lucas: the number two Hot 100 hit "The Closer I Get to You," "You Are My Heaven," and the undervalued boogie gem "Back Together Again." Charles Waring's lengthy essay is an illuminating and deeply emotional read, with quotes from those who worked closest with Hathaway, including Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Flack. The CD edition is shaped like a DVD set, fold-out style, with sharp design. It's a long overdue treat for anyone interested in a genius whose talents as a singer, keyboard player, songwriter, arranger, and producer gave the world a bounty of life-affirming and inspiring music. Hopefully an enterprising label has the resources to endure the licensing nightmares required to release a compilation that showcases Hathaway's work for artists like the Unifics, the Impressions, Curtis Mayfield, Phil Upchurch, Roberta Flack, Jerry Butler, and Willie Nelson. Paired with this, we'd get the full scope of the man's work.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Barry White turned into such iconic figure that it’s odd to hear his beginnings on his 1973 debut I’ve Got So Much to Give. In a sense, his sound is fully formed -- there’s no mistaking his velvet baritone or his lush, string-draped surrounding, particularly on the album’s closing “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby,” a song so seductive it set the pace for the rest of his career. Still, behind that creamy drapery it’s possible to hear a strong debt to Isaac Hayes throughout I’ve Got So Much to Give, particularly when the whole affair opens a slow, steady, eight-minute crawl through “Standing in the Shadows of Love” that strips all the bounciness out of the Supremes original, just like how all of Hayes reworkings of ‘60s pop hits turned the hit versions inside out on Hot Buttered Soul. Barry may be following in Isaac’s footsteps, but he winds up on his own path, one that isn’t quite as ambitious, one that is fairly hellbent on romance to the exclusion of everything else. Compared to what White did later, I’ve Got So Much to Give does display a fair amount of extraneous frills -- this is all about sex, but there are shifting textures and moods, it’s more serious about its seduction because White’s reputation as a loverman is not secure -- which makes it a richer, more interesting record than much of his body of work, perhaps containing some dead ends, but being all the more captivating for its slight touch of messiness. [Hip-O Select’s 2010 reissue contains instrumental tracks of “Just a Little More, Baby” and “I’ve Got so Much to Give” as bonus tracks.]© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Thick-toned tenor Ike Quebec is in excellent form on this CD reissue of a 1961 Blue Note date. His ballad statements are quite warm, and he swings nicely on a variety of medium-tempo material. Unfortunately, organist Freddie Roach has a rather dated sound, which weakens this session a bit; bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Al Harewood are typically fine in support. Originals alternate with standards, with "Just One More Chance," "The Man I Love," and "Nature Boy" (the latter an emotional tenor-bass duet) being among the highlights.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

Gold follows a handful of major Barry White compilations released since the '70s, including Casablanca's two-volume Greatest Hits (released in 1975 and 1981, then on CD), the three-disc 1992 box set Just for You, 1995's All-Time Greatest Hits, and 2002's two-disc The Ultimate Collection. Many of the sets in Hip-O/Universal's Gold series amount to reissues of two-disc anthologies released during the early 2000s through labels distributed by Universal, and this one is not an exception -- it's exactly like The Ultimate Collection, albeit with different visual presentation. As any Barry White fan would be quick to tell you, White was so much more than a large, oversexed, deep-voiced novelty. He was a tremendously prolific and gifted songwriter, arranger, and producer. Even without all the albums released under his own name, he'd have quite a legacy with Love Unlimited and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, not to mention his stint in A&R and behind the scenes work with Gene Page, Gloria Scott, Danny Pearson, and Webster Lewis. Gold includes five Love Unlimited Orchestra tracks -- the big guns, like the number one pop single "Love's Theme" and the number one club single "My Suite Summer Suite," as well as the pleasant surprise of "Midnight and You" -- but otherwise concentrates on Barry White's solo-in-name releases, ranging from 1973's "I'm Gonna Love You, Just a Little More Baby" (number one R&B, number three pop) to 1979's "It Ain't Love, Babe (Until You Give It)" before picking back up with 1987's "Sho' You Right." (White released albums during the intervening years that are not represented, and Universal would've had to license roughly ten charting singles from them to be thorough). The extensive back catalog of his other ventures could use a whole lot of love, but Gold offers about as much lush and exquisitely arranged soul music as one could hope to get in two and a half hours.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Released 11 days before Valentine's Day 2009, Boney James' album Send One Your Love seems intended to function as his romance-themed disc for the holiday. Not that any of the smooth-playing saxophonist's CDs wouldn't serve almost equally well as accompaniment to a candlelit dinner and all that comes after, but Send One Your Love is particularly suited to a night of love. In Boney James' estimation, the height of tender emotion seems to be located on the R&B charts of the mid-'70s; in addition to the title tune, penned by Stevie Wonder, the album contains his jazzy treatments of the Stylistics' "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)," Barry White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More Baby," and the Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You." In the case of "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," which here features a soulful vocalist over-emoting his way through the lyrics, Boney James may be recalling Nancy Wilson's version rather than the folk-pop one by its composer, James Taylor. But whether the familiar melodies are intended to recall young love for listeners or the tunes are originals, the music is typically soothing, making this another Boney James album much like its predecessors.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Since the success of the Beatles' 1 album in 2000, the concept of compiling a collection of an artist's number one hits has been another way of getting at the "greatest-hits" package. Of course, not many artists have an album's worth of legitimate number one hits. Barry White does, by a liberal interpretation that includes all three of the trade magazines current in his era -- Billboard and the now-defunct Cash Box and Record World -- and all of the charts those publications assembled, as well as all of White's projects, including his solo recordings, his instrumental ensemble the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and the female vocal trio he produced and wrote for, Love Unlimited. Add in the 1990 song "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)," credited to Quincy Jones Featuring Al B. Sure!, James Ingram, El DeBarge, and Barry White, and you have 12 hits dating back to 1973's "Love's Theme" by the Love Unlimited Orchestra and up to 1994's "Practice What You Preach." For good measure, the set adds five "Bonus Tracks: #2's and More," for a 72-minute running time. Actually, including the different White efforts improves the album by giving it some measure of diversity. A White hits album that simply presented his solo hits one after another would tend to emphasize their similarity as, in song after song, his deep bedroom voice murmured pillow talk, leading to a creamy chorus of more romantic blandishments spoken in ‘70s slang. Here, those tracks are broken up somewhat by the instrumentals and contrasting vocals. Still, it's a remarkable run. White may have had only one thing to sell, but he found different ways to package it, and this album presents the highlights of his repertoire on a single disc.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

To quote an earlier comeback record from Tom Jones (not that he ever left), he not only has the lead but he knows how to swing it. While it's true that 24 Hours appears close to 50 years after Jones first started playing with local Welsh beat groups, there's still plenty of evidence that this is the same singer who caused timid radio broadcasters to reconsider playing his records and women to throw uncountable pairs of knickers toward the stage. Helmed by production team Future Cut -- also behind tracks by Lily Allen, Estelle, and Kelis, among others -- the record charts a perfect balance between the type of throwback soul that would appeal to fans of the artists mentioned above (plus Amy Winehouse or Nikka Costa) as well as those who treasure his beefy late-'60s productions. After all, not many listeners want to hear a refined Tom Jones. They want the power and bravado of "It's Not Unusual" and "What's New, Pussycat?" And, fortunately, that's exactly what they get here, from the knockout first single "If He Should Ever Leave You," the opener "I'm Alive," the aggressive and flirtatious "Sugar Daddy," and "In Style and Rhythm." Often, when performers attempt to update their sound, they end up sounding hopelessly lost or bewildered, but Jones has changed with the times throughout his career. Just as importantly, he's always chosen collaborators who can pinpoint how his classic sound would work in a contemporary context. Here, it's a pounding and drum-heavy production that still allows room for organic touches (blazing horns, stinging brass, twanging guitars). The quality of the songs is high, and most are kept in-house, so they match his persona well. Besides Future Cut, Tom Jones also gets help on a pair of tracks from two other great producers: Betty Wright and Nellee Hooper. The latter appears on "Sugar Daddy," an excellent song written for Jones by Bono and the Edge, and it also features both of them playing on the track. Best of all, Jones' voice is still strong, only rarely betraying his 68 years on the planet.© John Bush /TiVo

It's probably not right to compare David Guetta's full-length debut to a band that only had one tune, but Just a Little More Love is the breezy and slick album Stardust never recorded. You could point to Modjo too, but Guetta has that something extra that makes him more of a leader than a follower. He's got modern-day disco down pat and his productions are glistening flashes that have just enough substance to keep listeners returning. Unlike Stardust's parent organization, Daft Punk, Guetta keeps his feet on Earth, focusing on the sensual and empowering rather than the Punk's love of left-field spaciness. If Daft Punk watch the Cartoon Network all day, Guetta watches BET, and the numerous soulful vocals from gospel singer Chris Willis and dance diva Barbara Tucker are the evidence. "Just a Little More Love" and "Love, Don't Let Me Go" are the proven hits, having deservedly filled many a dancefloor by the album's release. But Guetta still has an album's worth of ideas up his sleeve. "Sexy 17" is a winner with could-be-Prince vocals from the mysterious Jack Uzi, and the aggressive "Distortion" is a nice bit of racket that finds Willis doing a call-and-response with a drum machine. The American edition adds some excitement by tacking on Guetta's banging remix of David Bowie's "Heroes," now titled "Just for One Day." Nice extra, but this edition has already screwed up the flow of the original album by swapping some of the tracks and dropping two in favor of remixes. Of course this isn't conceptual like Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon, so it only hurts a little.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Released in 1970, Just a Little Lovin' was the fourth (and last) studio album Carmen McRae cut for Atlantic Records in the late '60s/early '70s. The albums were for the most part a mix of pop and jazz songs with a decidedly pop angle. Just a Little Lovin' isn't too different, though it leans more toward the soulful end of the street. Producer Arif Mardin put McRae together with the Dixie Flyers studio band, backup singers extraordinaire the Sweet Inspirations, and an all-star horn section led by King Curtis, and then let her loose on the usual Beatles covers (a lifeless "Something," a very relaxed and sensual "Here, There and Everywhere," and a dramatic take on "Carry That Weight") and pop tunes like Jimmy Webb's "Didn't We" and Laura Nyro's "Goodbye Joe." So far, so half decent. Where the album really takes off is on the tracks that sound more down-home and Southern, like those cribbed from Dusty in Memphis ("Just a Little Lovin'," "Breakfast in Bed"), the Willie Dixon blues "I Love the Life I Live," and the tracks written by Tony Joe White (the funky-as-dirt "I Thought I Knew You Well" and "I Want You"). The band sounds totally in the groove on these cuts and McRae responds with some supremely gritty performances. As with all her other Atlantic records, it's a mixed bag but well worth picking up for Carmen McRae fans -- and if you aren't one, you should be!© Tim Sendra /TiVo

Unlimited is more substantial than it appears. Looking like a five-dollar box of chocolates, with its contents printed on a large black sticker slapped onto the back, it improves upon 1992's Just for You box in breadth and (once you open the thing) presentation. The only potential problem for some listeners is that 20 of the songs appear in "alternate versions" -- a gentle way of saying "2009 remixes." The mixes were done by Jack Perry, Barry White's musical director and engineer, and they do retain the integrity of the originals. One would have to be fairly familiar with the material to discern major differences. (Did the songs need to be remixed, though? No.) Unlimited, like most boxes, does not cater specifically to casual fans or collectors. Discs one and two cover the Barry White albums, from 1973's I've Got So Much to Give through 1999's Staying Power. Disc three is devoted to the Love Unlimited Orchestra and female trio Love Unlimited, the groups he directed and nurtured, while the fourth disc compiles other production work for the mostly obscure likes of Gloria Scott, Jay Dee, White Heat, Black Satin, and Jimmie & Vella Cameron (whose "Be Fair to Me," released in 1981, indicates that White probably dug Electric Light Orchestra). That's the stuff that only hardcore soul freaks know about. With few exceptions, all the charting singles are represented, and disco freaks get some pleasant surprises with extended disco and previously-promo-only mixes of "Theme from King Kong," "My Sweet Summer Suite," and "It Ain't Love Babe (Until You Give It)." The fifth disc is a DVD containing 14 video clips -- gold for fans. Regardless of whatever reservations one may have about it, Unlimited is a generous and representative overview of one of the 1970s' most gifted and prolific do-it-all musicians.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

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