Review: Yet Another 3 Motown Reissues

This month Elemental Music is wrapping up their long and fruitful Motown reissue campaign of 2025 with three lesser known titles, two of which are by a couple of the label's key artists and one of which is by one-hit-wonders The Undisputed Truth. That group's self-titled debut sports the recording with the longest legs on any of these three albums because The Undisputed Truth is the album with "Smiling Faces (Sometimes)". This stone-classic established a new strain of sinister soul that would reach fruition with the following year's "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", which UT would record and release before The Temptations had their hit. Ashford and Simpson's "California Soul" worked in a similar mode, though the majority of the album is comprised of covers of established pop hits, like "Aquarius", "Ball of Confusion", "Ain't No Sunshine", and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", that make the record feel a little like a throw-back to those covers-heavy Motown LPs of the sixties. Ultimately, what stands out most on the record is the heavy and sweet see-saw between Joe Harris's deep baritone and the lighter vibes of Brenda Joyce Evans and Billie Rae Cavin, The Undisputed Truth being the rare Motown act with male and female singers sharing leads.

Of course, Motown's most celebrated mixed gender act was Gladys Knight and the Pips, although they were out the door and on their way to Buddah by the time Neither One of Us came out in 1972. The title track was a big hit in the group's smooth mode, which made them feel less aimed at Motown's teen audience and more at groovy parents. The Pips' adult contemporary soul has always been less to my liking than the fresher sounds of the Temps, Tops, Supremes, and Vandellas, but "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" snaps hard and "Who Is She (And What Is She To You)" gets some bite from its paranoid lyric and more of that sinister sass that The Undisputed Truth established. But with just nine fairly tight songs, the record feels a bit slight overall.

The Temptations' Solid Rock is slight too because it lacks a significant hit to anchor it, includes an overlong and fairly listless version of "Ain't No Sunshine" that will make no one forget Bill Withers, and  wastes twelve minutes with a rambling and heavy-handed experiment called "Stop the War Now". The most successful tracks are the light and twinkling "Smooth Sailing" and the wistful "It's Summer", both of which harken back to the group's fresh-faced early days, as well as the funky, fierce, and propulsive "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)", by far the best thing on the record.  

These three records may represent the good-but-not-great side of Motown, but they all represent the great side of Elemental's pressings, which continue to maintain this campaign's standards in terms of audio and vinyl quality. All discs are dynamic with deep sound stages. All LPs are flat and noise-free.