There really are more War best-of packages than the situation warrants, and while the double-CD The Very Best of War is a fine compilation if you don't already have one in your collection, it's questionable whether it was a necessary addition to the band's discography. For one thing, it doesn't differ all that much from the previous two-CD War best-of on Rhino, Anthology (1970-1994). Sure, each has a few tracks not on the other, but both are built around their lengthy string of big hits. Even Barry Alfonso's accompanying essay was adapted from the liner notes to Anthology (1970-1994). Still, this does have all of the big chart hits and a few minor ones, as well as standout album tracks from throughout the 1970s and early '80s that illustrate the band's versatility. Reading the small print on the track listings, it's revealed that half a dozen of these cuts are edits that either appear here for the first time or were only available on previous anthologies or imports.

In 1988, Roberta Flack made a comeback after a long hiatus away from the recording studios with a new album of songs in the adult contemporary vein. Using a vast array of top session musicians whose names would easily fill a page and crowd out liner notes, "Oasis" was released to public indifference, even though the title track did hit #1 on the R & B charts.

Although the Crusaders could not have known it at the time, their recording of "Street Life" (which features a memorable vocal by Randy Crawford) was a last hurrah for the 20-year old group. Their recordings of the next few years would decline in interest until the band gradually faded away in the '80s. However this particular set is well worth picking up for the 11-minute title cut and there is good playing by the three original members (Wilton Felder on tenor, soprano and electric bass, keyboardist Joe Sample and drummer Stix Hooper) along with guitarist Barry Finnerty; horn and string sections, plus additional guitarists are utilized on Sample's commercial but listenable arrangements.

What a shame that Wilton Felder and Wayne Henderson didn't have enough confidence in their legendary trombone/sax chemistry to feature it in the forefront more. Instead they relegate themselves (and the jumpy, soulful groove tracks behind them) to supporting roles behind not simply overtly commercial vocals but super-cheesy ones at that. On "Keep That Same Old Feeling," they tarnish a sharp horn tradeoff with pointless female vocals that remind us we're "jamming with the Jazz Crusaders." Henderson himself hurts a hip new arrangement of "(You've Got) Personality" by singing the lead himself, while "Party Joint" wastes a cool, marching brass sound with a repetitive vocal line that sounds like it came from a bad 70s funk record.

Generally disregarded by jazz purists, Roy Ayers' Live At the Montreux Jazz Festival is nevertheless a thoroughly engaging set of funky jazz fusion. In fact, the album is one of the most sampled jazz records in hip-hop. Loops of this performance of "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" have appeared on tracks by A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, and several others. The original grooves on this album are just as funky as those the hip-hop artists have derived from it. In fact, Ayers is probably funkier and looser than the musicians that borrowed from him several years later. Live At the Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the core recordings of acid jazz, "rare grooves," and jazz hip-hop; it's a record that sounds better 20 years after its release than it did when it first appeared.

Boscoe is the 1973 self-titled debut album by Chicago band Boscoe. Originally released on the very small Kingdom of Chad label, only a few copies were pressed and released before it did nothing. It would gain a cult following a few decades later. This was remastered and reissued in 2007 by The Numero Group.

Cupid’s in Fashion is the ninth album by the Average White Band (also AWB) a Scottish funk and R&B band. It was released in 1982 on the RCA label and peaked at #49 in the R&B album charts.

That's The Way Of The World is the 1975 album by Earth, Wind & Fire. This is the unremastered compact disc released sometime betweem 1986-1989 by Columbia Records.

Benny and Us resulted from a chance meeting in Miami between Ben E. King and the Average White Band, who were vacationing there just when King was starting work on a new album. The finished LP yielded two hit singles and became King's best-selling LP, rising to number 33. The sound is soulful and funky, very bright and passionate - the upbeat, relentlessly catchy "Get It Up for Love" and the soaring, horn and string driven "A Star in the Ghetto" made respectable showings on the R&B charts, and a good portion of the rest ("The Message," "What Is Soul") is pretty powerful stuff as well. "Imagine" is so busy and so self-consciously earnest that it's difficult to enjoy, but King is so good in the moments when he is on target, that it's hard to skip this track, even if it is the weakest number here…

Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape is the 2002 album by American singer, songwriter, musician and producer Me'Shell NdegéOcello. Released on Maverick Records, this features the singles "Earth" and "Pocketbook".

Comfort Woman is the 2003 album by American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Me'Shell NdegéOcello. This would be the last album she did for Madonna's Maverick Records before going independent. This was an enhanced CD, the extras of which is only in the lossless version of this download.

AWB's artistic winning streak continued with its outstanding fourth album, Soul Searching. Interestingly, this wasn't an album that enjoyed a great deal of publicity or that contained a lot of major hits. In fact, its biggest single, the dreamy "Queen of My Soul," only made it to number 21 on Billboard's R&B albums chart. But thanks to the devoted following AWB had acquired since signing with Atlantic in 1974, Soul Searching went gold. Indeed, AWB aficionados were quite receptive to first-rate material ranging from the invigorating "I'm the One" to the hauntingly romantic "A Love of Your Own." By zeroing in on their strengths - hard-hitting funk and delightfully melodic soul - AWB saw to it that Soul Searching was every bit as rewarding as its predecessors.

In the informative liner notes that he wrote for Rhino's early-'90s reissue of Cut the Cake, writer A. Scott Galloway explains that this excellent album was recorded under less-than-ideal circumstances. The Average White Band's original drummer, Robbie McIntosh, died of a heroin overdose in 1974, and the surviving members were still in mourning when they started working on their third album, Cut the Cake (which originally came out on LP in 1975). Steve Ferrone, a black drummer from London, England, was hired as a replacement - ironically, he became the first black member of a Scottish soul/funk band that had a very African-American sound and a largely African-American following…

Digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of albums (plus bonus tracks) from the R&B/Soul vocalist. When Leon Haywood soared into the R&B Top 20 with Keep It In The Family in 1974, it marked the breakthrough for this singer and musician who had spent the previous decade paying his dues working in the road bands of Sam Cooke and Big Jay McNeely, and achieving minor solo success with 45s on Imperial and Decca. Leon reaped his reward on joining 20th Century Records at the birth of the Dance Music era in the mid -'70s as his R&B hit singles crossed over into the Hot 100, inspiring the release of two notable albums, Back To Stay and Keep It In the Family. The bonus tracks include a selection of contemporary hit singles and their b-sides on 20th Century.

Like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Ohio Players, the Average White Band demonstrated that even the mightiest of funk bands can experience a creative and commercial decline. 1978's Warmer Communications was the last AWB album that went gold; by the time they came out with 1979's uneven Feel No Fret, AWB's popularity had decreased. That isn't to say that nothing they recorded after the '70s has merit; 1997's Soul Tattoo found AWB providing a decent and satisfying, if less than essential, CD 17 years after the '70s ended. Nonetheless, many AWB fans agree that Warmer Communications was the Scottish band's last truly excellent album. This 1978 LP didn't have a blockbuster single like "Cut the Cake" or "Pick Up the Pieces"; the funky single "Your Love Is a Miracle" only made it to number 33 on Billboard's R&B singles chart…