if Loving You is Wrong S02

Rhino's expansive six-CD box set of 1970s soul called Can You Dig It?, this wonderfully sequenced collection stands as an impressive survey of the genre in its own right, running the gamut from Al Green and Marvin Gaye to the Chi-Lites, Sly Stone, the Staple Singers, and Earth, Wind & Fire and beyond with nary a slack track in sight. It may technically be a sampler, but in being so it doesn't have the luxury of pausing for breath or historical reflection, which means this compilation, sampler or not, delivers bang for the buck from end to end.

Eight long years after his last album was issued in America, Harry Belafonte emerged, like the proverbial groundhog on February 2, to see what the weather was like. As it turned out, he should have stayed underground, because Belafonte's one and only effort for Columbia turned out to be as dismal as his most listless albums for RCA in the 1970s. Unable to find enough contemporary product to work with, Belafonte used four songs from early-'70s songwriter Jake Holmes (a stalwart on his worst RCA albums) to round out this generally boring collection. Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" can be a poignant lesson in self-pity if not for Belafonte's mannered performance, and surely there must be a better Hoyt Axton song for Harry to sing than "Mary Makes Magic." Even Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," combined in a medley with the South African "Jabulani," misses the mark. A sorry effort for what once was one of the most versatile and exciting recording artists in history – now relegated to being filed in the "has-bins" at record stores.

Solid Gold Soul: Deep Soul album features 22 intense soul cuts, including Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is," B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone," and Otis Redding's "That's How Strong My Love Is."