Anthology - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1986)



Another collection from 1986 that expanded an earlier triple vinyl collection from the early seventies. Anthology traces The Mircales progress from their late fifties beginnings, through their sixties and into their post-Smokie Robinson 70s funk/disco hits.

It's quite interesting to hear them gradually morphing from a better than average, but not stellar doo-wop band into the pop/soul band that made so many sixties hits. It's like hearing the birth of soul. 

Smokie Robinson is often lauded for his clever, romantic lyrics which seem a bit Shakespeare influenced, and for his pure high tenor singing voice, which many people refer to as a falsetto but which I think is mostly just a really well done head voice. If you take the big hits here and the big hits he wrote for a number of other artists on the Motown label, he really emeges as one of the great songwriters of the era. 

My problem is, that while his lyrics are always clever -- to a virtuosic degree --this sort of Renaissance/Enlightenment stylization never really speaks to my heart, personally and also the fact that on his own records, sometimes his lyrics are better than his melodies. And his voice, beautiful though it is just lacks a certain precise quality that Diana Ros has.

Comparing this with Anthology form Diana Ross & the Supremes is perhaps inevitable.  While ultimately I'd say Smokie has more range as a songwriter than HDH, the other great songwriting force at Motown in the sixties, (they do tend to be a little formulaic by contrast), he definitely was not the producer they are. There's just a certain pop and zing to Supremes record that most Miracles records lack, even if the lyrics are actually much better.

Of course the sound on this set is not as good as the other set either: maybe because of production, maybe because it was recorded in Detroit rather than LA (I have no idea), and of course the early stuff was recorded back in the monophonic Detroit 50s. Overall, there's an overdriven, busy feel to a lot of these productions, with the horns and backing vocals kind of messily competing for your attention and coupled with the muddy sound and the fact that some of the songs are melodically uninspired, I'm afraidd that it's not quite as good as the Diana Ross set. 

Don't get me wrong, when Smokey hits with melody and lyrics, he hits big, for example with the amazing, jaw-dropping  "More Love", which stuns me everytime I hear it. What a chord progression!



45 songs just ultimately seems to0 long -- I'd probably cut it down to a good 20 song set for maximum enjoyment. 


4/5

Chosen because it's a vintage, non-compressed CD, I was a little disappointed with the sound of this, but it's not horrible sounding by any means. I think the problem is mainly baked into the original production. There are about ten million compilations of these old Motown Artists (at least the really big ones) on the market. There may be better sounding ones out there, but this one, culled down to it's essentials is recommended by me.



Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco*

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day*

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead*

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are the Village Green Preservation Society -- The Kinks

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.

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