Some might consider it a guilty pleasure, but I love collecting soft rock compilations of artists from the 70s and early 80s. It's warm, soothing music I remember from my childhood-- comfort food for the soul, if you will. But some of these artists-- like Paul Davis-- were a step above the rest as true professionals who wrote both straight from the heart and with real lyricism.
Admittedly, I'm not a Paul Davis expert. I purchased this album for "Cool Night", "I Go Crazy", "'65 Love Affair" and "Sweet Life". But I somehow trusted most anything else by this under-appreciated singer-songwriter was going to be just as good. This CD proved to me I was right. And as a bonus, I found out that the version of "Love or Let Me be Lonely" that I always loved as a kid was done by Davis. I didn't recognize the title until I heard it and instantly recognized it, to my great pleasure and satisfaction.
This great CD has all the hits and the songs I didn't know are just as good. You can't go wrong. Although, it would have been nice to have even just a brief editorial about the man's career in the insert. I know it's just a budget comp, but even the Flashbacks series gives you a little something. But that's my only complaint, and it's a minor one.
I see a lot of comments about the sound quality if this album being just under par. I don't know that I agree. Yes, there is a lo of bass in the mastering that gives some of the music a slightly muffled sound. But this didn't surprise or disappoint me because I remember these songs always sounding that way-- even back when I was a kid. I always felt the bass-iness gave the music a soft, relaxing sound, which just emphasized the warmth of both the performance and the subject matter. To further prove my point, you will see the same complaints about the earlier, pre-MP3-era compilation, "Sweet Life: His Greatest Hit Singles" (now out of print). That's just how these songs were engineered, and re-mastering is only going to change that so much. In fact, sometimes it makes some things worse. I theorize that people in general have gotten used to more modern recordings done with more modern equipment and techniques to a point where we begin expecting the old stuff to sound on par with it, especially when it's claimed to be remastered. That combined with how the music made us feel when it first came out and now doesn't have the same punch of newness leaves us feeling it's not quite as well-mastered as it should be. Perhaps. But at any rate, I have zero complaints about the musical contents of this album. It's well worth the budgeted price and then some, and it should be in anyone's soft rock collection.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.8 (809 ratings)
Price	$7.98
Category	Adult Contemporary

Superhits: Paul Davis

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