The Contours - Dance With The Contours (2011)
FLAC (tracks), Lossless / MP3 320 kbps | 1:05:51 | 149 / 268 Mb
Genre: Early R&B, Motown, Soul
Of the Motown acts to have big hits in the 1960s, the Contours are one of the least known; it could be more people can rattle off the lyrics to "Do You Love Me?" than identify the group that sang the song. But like all Motown groups of consequence, they recorded a surprisingly voluminous amount of material for the label, much of which was unreleased at the time. It's still astonishing that there are enough unissued cuts from 1963 and 1964 alone to comprise the bulk of this 26-track CD. It does include a couple of official 1964 singles ("Can You Do It" and "Can You Jerk Like Me"), but the other two-dozen masters were previously unreleased before this 2011 compilation appeared. It's also impressive that these recordings aren't obvious throwaways. At the same time, however, there's not much in the way of obvious first-rate contenders for 45 release, and much of it sounds like decent album filler. (In fact, about half of it could have been planned for a late 1964/early 1965 LP that might have been titled Dance with the Contours, hence the title of this CD anthology.) More often than not, they're uptempo tunes that take advantage of the group's knack for danceable grooves paced by some of the grittiest lead vocals ever heard on Motown sides of the early to mid-'60s. Sometimes they specifically echo the "Do You Love Me?" formula, and might have been passed over for release by quality control for precisely that reason.