For the 4th installment of this series the great folks at Hip-O have given us a stellar reissue of Smokey's 7th and 8th studio albums. While I'm no audiophile by any stretch, the first thing that struck me was how wonderful these tunes sounded in their remastered quality. Really crisp and clear.

Probably the only well known song on Love Breeze is Daylight and Darkness. And while sometimes you wonder what the A&R people are thinking when they choose singles for albums, this time they definitely got it right in my opinion. I think it is criminal that Daylight and Darkness didn't have a better fate (Billboard chart wise) as it is a hauntingly beautiful song. Coming off Deep In My Soul where none of the tracks were penned by Smoke, this tme around six of the eight were written/cowritten by him. By my vote, I really dig the groove of Why You Wanna See My Bad Side and absolutely love the Smokey/Marv Tarplin collaboration on Madam X. One of the joys of these rereleases sometimes is you get to rediscover a tune you had not heard in a dog's age. And Madam X was one of those moments for me. The rest of the songs are mostly decent, but there are no other standouts for me personally.

Where There's Smoke features Cruisin, Smokey's seminal track as a solo artist. I don't need to elaborate on its' brilliance. What's rather funny is how the rest of the album sounds nothing like it. Disco was in full swing in 79, and this album has the bass lines to prove it! It never fails to put a smile on my face hearing all the slap bass going on in a number of these tunes. There's the disco edged remake of Get Ready, the funky opening track It's A Good Night and the Smokey/Stevie collaboration I Love the Nearness of You. Outside of Cruisin, perhaps my favorite of the bunch is Share It. Simple, straight forward pop from the master. The rest of the album is a fun listen, but composition wise, there are really no other stand outs.

And just in case we hadn't been disco'd out enough, there's an instrumental bonus track of Get Ready. Six more minutes of dancing...

As for the digipak itself, there are some nice photos of Smokey from this time frame I've never seen before and the lyrics are thankfully provided to both albums for the first time in this series.

Bottom line - these albums most definitely feature a few magnificent tracks. While some of the other material hasn't necessarily dated extremely well, I rather enjoy most of these songs, (probably a bit more than I should)! These aren't Smokey's best records by a long shot, but this reissue does them proud. Four stars.

Released 21 February 2011 in the UK, to date this is the 4th of 5 volumes by Hip-O Select chronicling Smokey Robinson's solo albums for Motown. It was initially available from their US website from 28 Jan 2011and then commercially released 15 Feb 2011. So let's get to the details...

Hip-O Select/Motown B0015163-02 breaks down as follows (78:15 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 8 are his 6th solo album "Love Breeze", released February 1978 in the USA on Tamla T7-359R1 and in May 1978 in the UK on Tamla Motown STML 12081

Tracks 9 to 15 are his 7th solo album "Where There's Smoke...", released May 1979 in the USA on Tamla T7-366R1 and August 1979 in the UK on Tamla Motown STML 12115

BONUS TRACK: Track 16 is "Get Ready (12-Inch Instrumental)" and was only available as the B-side the US 12" single of "Get Ready" on Motown M 000027D1 in June 1979

The gatefold card-digipak has the same generic look and feel of the Volumes 1 to 3 and 5. This edition (Vol. 4) has a 28-page colour booklet containing liner notes by PETER DOGGETT (formerly of Record Collector magazine and author of the book "There's A Riot Going On"). It also reproduces the American artwork front and rear for each album (even though in truth they're impossible to read), has photographic outtakes from the album sleeves, the lyrics to all the songs and detailed recording and release credits. It's very tastefully done...

Remastered by ELLEN FITTON from the original Stereo tapes - the sound quality is superb (she did an equally great job on Volumes 1 and 3). I've reviewed CDs remastered by Fitton before - she's one of Universal's top engineers (others are Erick Labson, Suha Gur, Gavin Lurssen, Gary Moore and Kevin Reeves). I've created a TAG above (pictorial displays of artwork) for both her remasters and Hip-O Select releases she's been involved in that are worth noting.

Unfortunately, like Volume 3, the really great sound quality helps you to swallow the huge amount of saccharine pap that Motown produced in those disintegrating years - and these 1978 and 1979 offerings are guilty of the same. Both have been (and will probably always remain) absolute dollar-bin fodder on both sides of the pond. But - and this is the big but - there's rediscoveries on here absolutely worth making...

The smoochy "Feeling You, Feeling Me" would do a night in a Theopolis P. Wilderbeast shagpad proud, while "Madame X" is a sort of "Cruisin'" variant that talks about 'faces in discotheques' and is excellent. "Shoe Soul" is a terrible song about sneakers, but the lovely slink of "Daylight & Darkness" is much better. And again the sound quality is ace. The slap-bass, strings and hooky beat of "It's A Good Night" reflect the club sound of 1979 and it's a good opener for the "Where There's Smoke..." album. "Share It" is a uptempo love song - the kind of infectious Summer-feeling hit that Smokey is so good at. Then of course there's the huge and sexily wonderful "Cruisin'" (lyrics above) which is represented here in its full six-minute glory. It was issued as an edit on 7" single and is wicked - I've had it on CD for a few years now just to have the track - shame there wasn't room for that unique version of it on here.

There's one bonus track, but it's a peach and a genuinely sought-after rarity. "Get Ready" was originally done by RARE EARTH back in 1970 (Smokey wrote the song) - his new version is a funked-up one. But the reason DJs love the B-side so much is because it removes the lyrics, peppers it with a girly chorus every now and then and concentrates instead on the funky guitar...and man what a groove it is - fabulous stuff.

To sum up - like Volume 3 - it's not all genius of course and there's cringingly awful stuff on both albums - but there's also the good gear, that cracking bonus track and the warm and funky sound that make it another enjoyable purchase in this ongoing series...

These are smooth well written songs. I have this album in vinyl and I have been waiting for the CD version. I like Smokey's song writing style. This album is R & B but a jazzy version. I love each and every song of Love Breeze. Songs: Why You Wanna See My Bad Side - excellent lyrics and very upbeat, Love So Fine - excellent lyrics and makes me feel like a million dollars, Feeling You, Feeling Me - a hauntingly beautiful tune, Madame X - a perfect demonstration of Smokey's writing style..I can almost see myself at the club in this situation, Shoe Soul - again this song is the play on words style Smokey is known for and a statement that walking on me is out (cute), Trying It Again - love it, upbeat and snazzy...it is a get back on the horse after you fall kind of song, but on the light side, Daylight & Darkness - this song is a master play on words and is a fabulous demonstration of Smokey's voice and lyrics, I'm Loving You Softly - this song gives me chills. I feel good and uplifted when I listen to these songs. The songs from Where's There's Smoke - I like the song Share It and of course Cruisin'. I bought this for the album "LOVE BREEZE", I already have a big Smokey collection. When I play the music on Love Breeze I am at an entertainment club and Smokey is on stage wearing a tuxedo jammin.

This was really good to hear this on CD. My favorite was the love breeze CD. I had the love breeze on record but it sounds great on CD. Now I am waiting for the Warm Thoughts. Please keep putting these CD's out they are sounding great.