659. Soul II Soul - Club Classic Vol.1 (1989)
















Track Listing

1. Keep on movin'
2. Fairplay
3. Holdin' on Bambeleda
4. Feeling free
5. African Dance
6. Dance
7. Feel Free
8. Happiness
9. Back to life
10. Jazzie's Groove

Review

Soul II Soul (well, Jazzie B really) bring us a very good album of late 80's dance music. It moves slightly away from funk and into a more R&B region of dance music and they have some pretty good guest vocalists.

The definite stand-out is Back to Life, I had never heard the version in the album, and it is an a cappella version with the beat only kicking in towards the end as it meshes with the next track. This actually makes the song more powerful than the more popular single mix.

The way the tracks mesh is actually a pretty good thing, the album is structured as a DJ set, so it is a pretty good one to revive that late 80s club music experience. And really it wasn't that bad, it's not ecstasy music, it can be appreciated without drugs, yes it's not my style but it is still pretty good.

Track Highlights

1. Back To Life
2. Keep On Movin'
3. Jazzie's Grove
4. African Dance

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album was released to great critical acclaim following three top 20 singles - "Fairplay", "Keep On Movin'" and "Back To Life" (the latter was also a UK number 1).

The record spawned one more hit - "Jazzie's Groove" - before vocalist Caron Wheeler decided to leave the group. Like many other albums recorded around that time, such as Black Box's Dreamland, other songs from the record became club hits despite not being released as singles; "Holdin' On" was especially popular in London clubs.

In 2000 Q magazine placed Club Classics Vol. I at number 49 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

Here's the original version of Back To Life: