Notes & Personnel Info |
 | Personnel: Chant? Moore (vocals); Gordon Chambers (background vocals). |
| Additional personnel: Chant? Moore (background vocals); JS, Ernie Isley, Gordon Chambers, Angela Winbush, Ronald Isley. |
| Liner Note Author: Steven Ivory. |
| Photographers: Hal Wilson; David Redfern. |
| Unknown Contributor Roles: Kandy Johnson; Kim Moore Johnson. |
| Arrangers: R. Kelly; Angela Winbush. |
| One of R&B's longest running and best-loved groups, the Isley Brothers unleashed a torrent of tasty soul, funk, and smooth balladry between their formation in the 1950s and the 2000s. Those who haven't followed the Brothers' career over the decades will likely find their stylistic range and the size of their discography dizzying, which makes a compilation like THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION a perfect primer for newbies. |
| DEFINITIVE is arranged chronologically, starting up with the gritty R&B of "Shout!" and vintage love songs like "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)." The Isleys' hard funk turns up on "Fight the Power" (the seminal "It's Your Thing" is conspicuously absent). But most of the material here is devoted to quiet-storm ballads such as "Smooth Sailing Tonight" and "Floatin' On Your Love." The term "definitive" is debatable (how to create such a collection from so much material?), but this set is a great place for Isley initiates. |
| This 17-track anthology has a bunch of Isley Brothers hits and is career-spanning, starting off with their 1959 classic "Shout" and going all the way up to their most recent R&B hit at the time this CD was released, 2006's "Just Came Here to Chill," but more than half of it postdates the 1970s, putting an inordinate weight upon their transformation to less exciting urban contemporary soul. ~ Richie Unterberger |
| This 17-track anthology might have a bunch of Isley Brothers hits, but it sure as heck isn't The Definitive Collection, no matter what the title says. Sure, it's career-spanning, starting off with their 1959 classic "Shout" and going all the way up to their most recent R&B hit at the time this CD was released, 2006's "Just Came Here to Chill." But no "It's Your Thing"? No "That Lady"? That's hardly definitive. And much of it's a long way from their best material, especially since more than half of it postdates the 1970s, putting an inordinate weight upon their transformation to a far less exciting urban contemporary soul act. There have been many attempts at Isleys best-ofs -- too many, in fact -- and this is, far from being the most definitive, one of the least definitive. For that, you'll have to go back to Rhino's two-volume The Isley Brothers Story in the early '90s, the only reasonably thorough and wise Isleys best-of, and one that didn't have to put "definitive" in its title to lay reasonable claim to that adjective. ~ Richie Unterberger |
Producer: Lamont Dozier; Brian Holland; R. Kelly; Chris Jasper; Ronald Isley; Bert Berns; The Isley Brothers; Angela Winbush; Marvin Isley; O'Kelly Isley; Reggie Griffin; Ernie Isley; Gordon Chambers; Rudolph Isley; Troy Raylor; Lamont Dozier; Brian Holland; R. Kel |
CD
