After an exceptional 2024, Elemental Music starts off the new year in strong fashion by adding three more entries to their Motown Sound Collection; Reflections by Diana Ross and the Supremes, Nitty Gritty by Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Pure Smokey by Smokey Robinson. Allowing younger generations of vinyl aficionados the opportunity to build solid shelves of Motown albums without years of perseverance and good luck, all three are available now on limited edition 140 gram vinyl.
Released in 1968, Reflections is notable in the Supremes’ discography for a variety of reasons, two of them related to billing and lineup as Florence Ballard exited the group as the set was being recorded. She’s heard on three of the album’s songs including the title track. As Cindy Birdsong made her entrance, Motown used this circumstance to help solidify a new hierarchy, with Reflections credited to Diana Ross and the Supremes.
Straight away, Reflections isn’t subtle in its psychedelic inflections, though that’s not a knock. The LP ranks high in the group’s oeuvre in terms of quality attained through good judgement that pertains to matters of taste and ultimately, restraint, or perhaps better said, caution. Maybe a mite too cautious, as “I Can’t Make It Alone,” with its harpsichord-ish chimes and what sure sounds like a Theremin (but is almost certainly an approximating synth), serves as a standout (and is maybe the record’s best song). It really should’ve been released as a single.
This brings us to how Reflections marks the Supremes’ culminating collaboration with songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland. The team’s compositions dominate side one, the stronger of the record’s two halves, as “Forever Came Today” and “In and Out of Love” are also highlights. Side two’s versions of “What the World Needs Now is Love,” “Up, Up and Away,” and “Ode to Billie Joe” go down smooth, but they lack the spark of personal interaction that made Holland-Dozier-Holland’s input such a major component in the Motown narrative.
There is one Holland-Dozier-Holland cut on side two, the lush with strings “Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things)” (initially cut by Martha and the Vandellas), but the flip’s top selections are the consecutive Smokey Robinson co-writes “Then” and “Misery Makes Its Home in My Heart.” They help elevate Reflections to the stature of a minor classic.
Even with those psychedelic touches, Reflections still sits outside of Motown’s psych-soul state of affairs. But issued in 1969 and produced by Norman Whitfield, Nitty Gritty by Gladys Knight & the Pips fits into that stylistic scheme without reservation and generally benefits from such additions as (likely faux) sitar in the versions of “(I Know) I’m Losing You” and “Ain’t No Sun Since You’ve Been Gone,” beaucoup hand drumming in opener “Cloud Nine,” the title track and “Got Myself a Good Man,” and copious wah-pedal guitar throughout.
However, the overriding impulse across the LP’s dozen tracks is funkiness that points toward genre developments that arose early in the oncoming decade. The soul-deep oomph of Knight’s vocals (at times Aretha-like) works well with this funky scenario as laid out by Whitfield, as does the fleet flair of the Pips’ backing, but they can effectively slow it down with no loss of power, as evidenced by “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “It’s Summer,” and “Didn’t You Know (You’d Have to Cry Sometime),” the latter one of the album’s hit singles, along with “The Nitty Gritty.”
Nitty Gritty benefits from consistency, documenting a group that was rolling in their comfort zone without a hitch. But with the exception of finale “I Want Him to Say It Again,” the album doesn’t rise to the heights of magnificence that could occasionally result from the Knight & the Pips-Whitfield collab. Instead, it stands as an appealing set from a group that was fully clicking and at the front of the musical pack at the turn of the decade.
Released in 1974, Pure Smokey was Smokey Robinson’s second solo album after leaving the Miracles. That it does hold a few instances of Motown magnificence is a nod to the label’s tendency to make smart decisions through a slew of musical changes as the record business became one wing of an entertainment industry behemoth. But predominantly, the record is testament to Robinson’s enduring talent.
With one exception, Robinson produced the entirety of Pure Smokey; the outlier is final track “A Tattoo,” which featured the guiding hand and arranging skills of Willie Hutch. As the album engages with the emergence of disco without succumbing to blatant trend hopping, this is especially impressive. Plus, Robinson had a hand in writing all but one of the LP’s tracks.
But overall, Pure Smokey is more engaged with earthy funk, and right out of the gate with opener “It’s Her turn to Live,” which bookends well with “A Tattoo.” Along the way, the album reins in any lingering excesses from the prior decade; the longest track, the sweetly symphonics-kissed “Virgin Man” is just a hair over five minutes, for example.
There are songs leaning toward the poppier side of the spectrum, such as “The Love Between Me and My Kids,” while “Asleep on My Love” and the excellent “She’s Only a Baby Herself” find Robinson slowing down the soulfulness with aplomb. “I Am I Am” just glides and side one’s closer “Just Passing Through” follows, well-described as a cooker with poise. There really isn’t a weak track on Pure Smokey, a clearly influential record that also feels like it’s been underdiscussed.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Diana Ross and the Supremes, Reflections
A-
Gladys Knight & The Pips, Nitty Gritty
B+
Smokey Robinson, Pure Smokey
A-