431 - Diana Ross & the Supremes - Anthology

[csberry]

Good Lord Almighty, this thing was a 50 song greatest hits collection. While I've been mildly annoyed with having to review such collections, this one just doesn't belong on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list. There is too much extra stuff on here. Sure, I can see a greatest hits with no filler being on the list, but this album is far from that category. The average person should never have to listen to The Supremes' cover of "A Hard Day's Night." The first disc and the first quarter of the second disc are basically their songs in chronological order. Those songs are followed by a cluster of songs with The Temptations. And the collection is finished off by Broadway-esque covers of contemporary songs and live performances on TV shows.

What stands out in this horde of music are:
1. As the amount of strings increases in the songs, the use of the non-Diana Ross members of the Supremes conversely decreases.
2. After their series of hits from the mid-60's, the backing vocals get shuffled to one channel or another in the mix. They were apparently not worthy of being heard through both ears any more.
3. As the first disc wraps up and during much of the second disc, Diana Ross sounds a lot like Barbra Streisand to me.
4. The songs on the first disc are basically "girl group" while the second is basically "Vegas pop." There are a handful of songs that stand out from the others by sounding more like other contemporary R&B/pop songs - especially "Reflections" (with channel shifting keyboards) and "The Nitty Gritty" (so funky compared to everything else on the album).

Songs I Knew I Liked: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Back in My Arms Again," "I Hear a Symphony," "You Can't Hurry Love," "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (although this is an alternate version that I found a bit more rockin' than I remember), and "Reflections"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Buttered Popcorn" (very early song)

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: Other than "Reflections," I would likely never want to hear anything on the second disc again.

Comments

[chris21718.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you reviewed this album because I really like a lot of their songs. The reason I made those Facebook comments about the mono vs. stereo is some of the songs sound a good bit different in the two mixes. I have several CDs of Diana Ross and the Supremes and believe it or not, they all sound a bit different. The older CD I had from the 1980s was in stereo. A later compilation had the mono versions of their hits, then another later disc had stereo mixes. Guess which one sounded worse? The newest one! All of their popular songs at least until 1969 were mixed in mono for the singles and so anything moving from channel to channel was done as an afterthought for the stereo album versions. Most Motown songs were done by making a solid mono music track before the vocals were put on. "Someday We'll Be Together" is where I'd end a compilation of Diana Ross and the Supremes and I'd omit all songs that didn't make the top 10 during their 1964-1969 reign except for the #11 "Nothing But Heartaches". It would be a 21-song compilation comprising their 12 number 1's and 8 other top 10 songs plus "Nothing But Heartaches". I have a CD that is very close to this exact compilation, and everything is in mono. On some songs, the music is mixed in a very different way, emphasizing different instruments.