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This is the third installment of the BACK TO LOVE series from Hed Kandi. While I wasn't in the clubs when these songs were being played, some of them I do remember from my youth, and either way it's just good music. It is a nice retrospective of club hits from the late 80s and early 90s. The first disc is usually filled with club classics, while the second disc focuses more on hip hop and funkier tracks. Highlights include En Vogue's "Hold On", Ce Ce Peniston's "Finally", Frankie Knuckles "Your Love", and many more. The great thing is these are all the full length mixes.
While it isn't the worst thing and it sounds like effort was made to clean up the sound quality, it makes me hesitant to buy another volume of this series. I bought this, my first volume of the hed kandi series, and while I'm thrilled to have the full length 12" mixes of many of these classics on CD, I can't overlook the fact that you can HEAR pops in the vinyl records that many of these songs were obviously mastered from for this compilation. Listen to this CD through headphones and you'll notice it much more at certain points. Why spend so much money for CD quality when all you're getting is vinyl quality recorded onto CD. I could do that at home with my recordable CD player and my turntable.
This is the best dance cd ever. This cd contains the best R&B Hits and house sounds combined.
As with virtually all Hed Kandi releases, the songs here aren't mixed, and many of them appear in their 12-inch extended versions. Detroit's Inner City serves up a discocentric remake of Stephanie Mills' "Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin'," and Shannon's still slammin' 1980s "Let The Music Play" appears in its full length.
For a lot of labels, it's a great concept, but the execution sometimes results in advestised-on-TV compilations that have "K-tel" cheese written all over them. Fortunately, the selections on this disc are tasteful and will bring a smile to the face of any serious clubhead.
"Back to Love" is a double CD that affectionately looks back to the old school (1980's to early 90s) and delivers a generous serving of delectable early club hits. On the second disc, the tempo changes a bit, still offering a few disco jams but also flirting with r&b and hip-hop.
Adeva's powerful house re-working of Aretha's "Respect" sounds even better today, and it's a reminder of the glory years when house was truly rooted in soul. Sterling Void's "It's Alright" (which Pet Shop Boys would later cover) appears, and the tragically out-of-print "Too Blind To See It" from Kym Sims (produced by Chicago's Steve "Silk" Hurley) is another highlight that stands out on the 70+ minute Disc 1.
For hip hop lovers, the classic "White Lines" will satisfy their crave, and Dan Hartman's "Relight My Fire" still holds up as a disco stomper. If you want a great collection of what great dance music used to sound like, you can't go wrong with these two CDs.
Those are "Respect" by Adeva, "Passion of your passion " by Gat Decor and "Whatcha Gonna Do with my Lovin" by Inner City. I am a huge Hed Kandi fan (they've saved my life musically). I picked this up at a used CD shop and no wonder the person got rid of it. The rest of the songs are simply R&B tracks from the late 80's early 90's (a period I loathed). But I have to be frank, this really, really, really is an awful compilation. Out of the 24 tracks on this double CD compilation I only enjoyed 3 songs. Hed Kandi is a great lable but they have so much better compilations out there. Skip this one.
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