Touch Definitive

Lionel Richie - The Definitive Collection (Remastered) (2003)
R&B | 1CD | Flac tracks+CUE+LOG+HQ Scans (360 dpi) | 489 mb
Label: Motown

After mounting successes with the Commodores during the late '70s, Lionel Richie exploded into one of the biggest stars of the '80s, then enigmatically disappeared from the music business for nearly a decade. Fourteen of the tracks on this 20-track anthology (which also includes a five-cut bonus disc compiled by Richie) topped the charts, ample testimony to Richie's remarkable success in shifting from the Commodores' roots in the Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye Motown to a pioneering career as a crossover balladeer. His willful drift to the middle of the road found that its yellow line was nothing but gold. This collection charts the singer's upbeat successes with his former band, segues gracefully into the ballads and party-lite sensibility that made him such an unlikely '80s icon, and touches on his late-'90s reemergence. A newly recorded duet with Enrique Iglesias on "To Love a Woman" suggests that the elder popmeister hasn't lost his touch; indeed, his voice seems more warm and soulful than ever. –Jerry McCulley

This 18-track anthology spans three decades, but the only way you'd know is through the gentle introduction of studio technology. Together with his friend Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil ushered in the late-60s tropicalismo style, which blended a variety of regional genres to form a musical challenge to Brazil's then-oppressive regime. Their lyrics were dense and allusive, their tempi were exhilaratingly fast. Gil's own songs are perfectly attuned to his light, high timbre; his favourite accompaniment is a delicately-strummed acoustic guitar, which often descends to a confidential whisper. If he uses a backing group, he does so very discreetly; a light touch of Latin percussion is quite sufficient to allow him to float his songs into the ether. This exhilarating album begins with his early song about his home patch in Salvador "Toda Menina Baiana", and moves on through a gamut of national styles and moods.