The Soul Express Album of the MonthMay 2003  Tashan and Miles Jaye - both back in top form VARIOUS
ARTISTS 1) Phillip Hunter: I Can Love You Better 2) Tashan: After Hours 3) Darrius: Love Will Visit 4) Miles Jaye: Should Have Been Strong 5) Urban Ave 31: Heaven Help Us All 6) Lee Hawkins: Come with Me (Live with Me) 7) Tonia Woods: Will You Do It (You Make Me High) 8) DNA: So in Love 9) Sheree Monique: Because of You 10) Lee Hawkins: Don’t Run Away 11) Darrius: Just Wanna Know 12) Lugo: Good to Go 13) Race: I Found Love It seems that Café De Soul has successfully taken the same role as the Expansion Soul Sauce compilations had ten years ago: picking independent soul gems from small U.S. labels and releasing them in the U.K. as value-for-money compilation CD’s. This is the third volume in the Café de Soul compilation series, and it contains the two absolute killer cuts of this spring: After Hours by Tashan and Should Have Been Strong by Miles Jaye, both of which have been topping all specialist soul charts recently (Soul 24-7.com chart, Sweet Rhythm Chart, our own Quality Time Cream Cuts etc.) – and with reason. The aforementioned two songs are absolutely brilliant, indeed. Toby Walker introduces Tashan’s latest (promotional) CD Life Goes On and the massive After Hours track on his excellent www.soulwalking.co.uk site as follows: “On receiving the first initial copy of this set, I called Ralph Tee at Expansion Records and played him the track 'After Hours' down the telephone. I sent him a copy of the CD (with the thumbs up from Tashan). There then followed a series of 'networkings'. Ralph called Richard (Searling) at Expansion, who called Tashan and there then commenced discussions regarding licensing the album. Then the Cafe De Soul label enquired after the set.” Consequently, Expansion released Tashan’s Best of set without After Hours, but luckily the track ended up in Café de Soul’s latest compilation. The track in question is a wonderful, mellow yet groovy soul swayer in the same vein as Keni Burke’s classic Risin’ to the Top. After Hours is also based on a meaty bass line, over which we hear some stylish keyboards and guitar, and Tashan sings the splendid atmospheric song, which perfectly creates an atmosphere of a warm summer night together with that special one: “After hours / when the sun goes down / girl I need your body close / so I can do those things that you really love the most / Can I hold you in the moonlight / You got the key to my sensuality etc.”… An instant soul classic and a strong contender for the soul track of the year! Should Have Been Strong by Miles Jaye – one of my favourite soul artists of the last 15 years – is almost equally compelling. It’s dominated by a great, funky bass line and coloured by jazzy keyboard soloing – all instruments played by Miles himself. The actual melody effectively creates a dialogue between the lead singer and the chorus vocals, which repeat endless lines of what he “should have done” to avoid some serious heartache: “I should have said no / should have resisted / should have turned and walk away / should have never let you in” etc. A magical song and one of the best uptempo tunes Miles has recorded. Obviously, the rest of the CD pales in comparison with these two monster tunes, but luckily there are several other quality soul tunes still on offer. The opening cut I Can Love You Better is an excellent mellow mid-pacer with a tasteful production and a classy melody – Phillip Hunter is a new name to me, but certainly one to watch for the future. You Do It (You Make Me High) is a strong duet between Tonia Woods and Jarrard Anthony, taken from Tonia’s debut set All That Glitters, which was reviewed in our issue 4/2002. I also greatly enjoyed the Leon Ware-ish sophisticated soul atmosphere on Lee Hawkins’ ballad Come with Me (Live with Me) – the other track by Hawkins (Don’t Run Away) is another quality tune. In 2001 Café de Soul released Sheree-Monique’s CD Come See Me (reviewed in Soul Express 3/2001), and the song titled Because of You was one of the better tracks on that otherwise rather disappointing set. Instead, the tracks featured on the Café de Soul CD by Darrius were better than the two tracks by the same singer chosen to this compilation. Both cuts suffer from the low-budget production. Also, there would have been better tracks on Lugo’s Café de Soul CD Good to Go than the title track that has been included here, but I’ve actually grown to like this catchy pop-soul tune, despite the simple backing. As a whole, another essential compilation from this worthwhile UK label. -IT Other Albums of the Month in 2003 Albums of the Month in 2002 Albums of the Month in 2001 Albums of the Month in 2000 Albums of the Month in 1999 Albums of the Month in 1998 Albums of the Month in 1997 Other CD
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