Friday, September 29, 2017

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK - DETROIT

So here we have a movie about an incident in the Detroit riots in 1967, so what's the soundtrack going to be, all Motown, right? Well thankfully, no. Even though I love Motown, that catalogue's been milked dry since The Big Chill, and there was a lot more going on to sample. There should be some though, to properly reflect its ass popularity, but at least it's not the overused stuff. Instead we get Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas, Your Precious Love from Marvin and Tammy, and one only the truly big fans will know, The Elgins' Heaven Must Have Sent You. That last one is one killer cut by the way, and should have been huge, so they're doing you a favour.

Part of the non-Motown need in this film is that the factual story involves a member of the group The Dramatics, who later would score hits on the Stax label, and here gets caught up in a police murder. In addition to a couple of non-hit but strong Dramatics numbers, there are several obscure soul songs by acts such as Devotions, Lee Rogers and Jerry Williams, all really great choices. A smooth John Coltrane number, I Want To Talk About You, is added, and there are a couple of new cuts too, the best being a Roots one called It Ain't Fair, which is jazz, soul and rap combined. This is certainly one of the best soundtrack collections in awhile.

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