Gary Snyder Anthology

"Beautiful Soul" collects tracks from Springfield's 1973 "Cameo" album, along with the entirety of its previously unreleased follow-up "Longing". The "Cameo" tracks are produced by then-hot songwriting team Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, and they're done in the same pop/soul style the pair employed with the Four Tops at the time. Highlights include "Who Gets Your Love," a mid-tempo teaser that became a modest hit, and a spectacularly soulful version of Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey." The "Longing" tracks, some of which were to some degree unfinished, are a bit more wide-ranging stylistically. Among the best are the haunting, minor-key "Exclusively for Me," on which Springfield does a lovely impression of its co-author, ex-Zombies singer Colin Blunstone," and "A Love Like Yours," a lesser-known Motown song that she re-recorded for her 1977 album "It Begins Again".