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VA – Time-Life Music – AM Gold 1975
EAC Rip | Included: EAC Log + CUE + Flac + Covers | Size: 483 MB | RAR files
Release: 1997 | Label: Time Life, Warner Special Products | Number: AM1-22
Style: Funk, Soul, Rock | Stereo | FileServe.com, RapidShare.com

This series started out in 1990 as Super Hits, with each issue having a cartoonish photo/drawing as cover art. There were 20 volumes in the original Super Hits series. In 1995, the series was renamed AM Gold. The first four volumes were reissued using the new series title and a modified version of the cover art work from SUD-05, but that was soon replaced with a second AM Gold cover design that featured a gold record. The Super Hits series used the SUD- prefix, while the AM Gold series used the AM1- prefix. In the late 1990s, the AM1- prefix was replaced with the R834- prefix, but the volumes continued as before. Two AM Gold budget box sets were introduced in the late 1990s, with 12 tracks instead of the usual 18-24. These were meant for retail sales, unlike the normal subscription CDs.

The past decade has seen the birth and evolution of so many progressive rock bands that it can be more than a little challenging to keep track of them all. And let’s face it, at this stage in the game it isn’t easy to come up with a band name that hasn’t been taken already. But occasionally a name is able to strike a blend of originality and absurdity such that it also sticks in one’s head and stands out from the rest…

Ruth Copeland's second Invictus recording retains the services of Funkadelic vets Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell, Tiki Fulwood, and Ron Bykowski, but like the preceding Self-Portrait, I Am What I Am simply fails to jell. Without the leadership and focus of George Clinton, the music zigs and zags in too many opposing directions. Credit Copeland for ambition – the opening antiwar epic "The Medal" recalls the politicized psychedelic soul of Norman Whitfield-era Temptations classics like "Cloud Nine" and "Ball of Confusion," while "Crying Has Made Me Stronger" shifts gears completely to embrace gospel – but her reach consistently exceeds her grasp. When I Am What I Am does come together, it's impressively heady stuff. Particularly noteworthy is the deep-fried funk outing "Suburban Family Lament," which showcases Hazel's scorching guitar as well as Fulwood's much-sampled and monstrous introductory drum break.