Blue Eyed Angel

Kokomo were renowned as Britain's finest funk band of the mid-'70s, a genuine live experience, which makes their 1975 eponymous debut a bit of a shock: there's no live feel here, only slick studio gloss that brings the album closer to the sunbleached sounds of the American West Coast than the R&B-vamping working bands that populated the pub rock circuit Kokomo frequented. Kokomo yo-yos between percolating funk that flirts with disco – à la the Average White Band – and the smoothest of soft rock, everything sounding mellow and relaxed even when the tempo revs up, as it does on the opener "Kitty Sitting Pretty." Here, the group's female backing singers take center stage, but they're prominent throughout, even when they're fading into the background to support the band's other singers, who can evoke Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, or Frankie Miller, depending on the tune.

Simply Red are a pop institution, at least in areas of the world that are not the United States, and like all institutions, they're in need of a monument to their longevity. Song Book 1985-2010 is that monument, a four-disc box set that tells their story, concentrating on their hits but also adding a disc of new recordings where they revisit deep cuts from their catalog, refashioning them so they sound similar to latter-day Simply Red. This last disc is for the diehards but the rest is for those who have enjoyed hits from "Holding Back the Years" through "Stay," the group's last charting U.K. Top 40 single. All the hits are here, along with enough album tracks to give this weight, and if it's too much for American fans who only remember "Holding Back the Years," "If You Don't Know Me by Now," and maybe "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)," with its comprehensive sprawl it nevertheless illustrates the longevity of Mick Hucknall's blue-eyed soul group.

This is the second album by Scottish R&B vocalist Frankie Miller, this time recorded in Atlanta. The album is a nice mix of songs, half of which were self-penned. A note of interest: Miller's version of "Play Something Sweet" was released a year before Three Dog Night had their hit with the same song.