Shaft
Artist: Isaac Hayes
Community Score: 9.25

Of the many wonderful blaxpoitation soundtracks to emerge during the early '70s, Shaft certainly deserves mention as not only one of the most lasting but also one of the most successful. Isaac Hayes was undoubtedly one of the era's most accomplished soul artists, having helped elevate Stax to its esteemed status; therefore, his being chosen to... Read More

Going East
Artist: Billy Paul
Back to Oakland
Artist: Tower of Power
Brother, Brother, Brother
Artist: The Isley Brothers
All Day Music
Artist: War
Community Score: 8.00

As controlled as their self-titled debut was loose, War's sophomore effort, All Day Music, appearing a little over six months later in November 1971, was packed with subtly understated grooves. A hit with the fans, the LP peaked in the Top Ten, ultimately spending a massive 39 weeks on the charts. Side one is a gorgeous slab of mellow grooves... Read More

Did You Hear From Me/The Crown Prince of Dance
Artist: Rufus Thomas

The "world's oldest teenager" was springy, sassy, and jubilant when he cut this date in the early '70s. Thomas, whose career goes back to the days of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, made some brilliant novelty cuts for Stax in the 1970s. He simply went into the studio and clowned, backed by the great Stax session pros. The results are comic gems,... Read More

Up for the Down Stroke
Artist: Parliament
Community Score: 6.38

Kicking off with one of prime funk's purest distillations -- the outrageously great title track, with a perfect party chorus line and uncredited horns (presumably the Horny Horns were involved somehow) adding to the monster beat and bass -- Up for the Down Stroke finds Parliament in rude good health. As was more or less the case through the... Read More

Curtis - RHINO
Artist: Curtis Mayfield
Community Score: 9.00

The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield -- indeed, it was practically the "Sgt. Pepper's" album of '70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of... Read More

Caught Up
Artist: Millie Jackson

Taking the drama of a love triangle to logical extremes, Millie Jackson's Caught Up turns the pitfalls of tainted love into the basis for a concept album (the seeds for soul music's explicit treatment of the topic having been planted by James Carr's "Dark End of the Street"). While the "other woman's" view is taken up initially on cuts like the... Read More

Check It Out
Artist: Tavares
Community Score: 5.00

From Earth, Wind & Fire and L.T.D. to the O'Jays and the Dramatics, many of the great soul outfits of the 1960s and 1970s paid more than their share of dues. None of those groups were overnight sensations, they struggled a long time before becoming huge, and the same can be said about Tavares. The Boston vocal group was formed in 1964, and it... Read More