Search - Ashford & Simpson :: Come As You Are

A Long Overdue Release!!!

Michael G. Smith II | New York, NY | 06/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must say this has always been my favorite albums from Ashford & Simpson and perhaps one of their best. Wounded Bird Records redid A&S' Warner Bros. catalog for 2010. "Come As You Are" should have BEEN on CD 15 years ago, under the Warner Bros./Wea series when "Is It Still Good To Ya", "Send It", & "So So Satisfied" were available. Why this one was eluded to us then, I'll never know. Now onto this release. The only minor issue is the bare minimal packaging. It comes with the original album artwork from the LP release with the lyrics. Whoever did the remastering job on this deserves to have the privilege of re-doing every album not released yet from now on. The sound is superb! You can really hear the instruments a lot better than the LP version. The music is so loud & crisp, deep to the root, that it's scary! This has to be one of "Wounded Bird Records" best releases to date. I had the vinyl to CD conversion of this album and the Wounded Bird's release surpasses it by miles. If you had the LP, like I did, finally listening to it on CD will make you think your listening to the album for the first time all over again! Anyone that wants to introduce themselves to A&S should definitely have this in their collection because every song is good and is essential. I was a little disappointed with their reissue of their Pointer Sisters 1978 "Energy" CD. It was basically just a transfer and with no remastering capabilities. Wounded Bird redeemed themselves with "Come As You Are". I would've just been as happy without the bonus tracks!"

It's Finally Come

Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 05/24/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"By the time Nick & Val released their third album the disco era was in full swing. Therefore some heavy thought was put into this album in terms of it's playability on the dancefloor. Since their debut Gimme Something Real several years earlier thi was one of their most musically exciting albums up until this point,emphasizing a lot of strong rhythmic exhanges that would typify their sound for the rest of the decade. Songs such as "One More Try","Caretaker" and "Tell It All" have a delightfully delicious jazz-funk flavor to them,all helped along by the rhythm section of Stuff with Richard Tee's destinctive revered/phased electric piano being the main highlite. "Sell The House" is an excellent song of longing and the music is incredible. The slow crawling groove,wah wah's and the bubbling bassline put it smack dab in the center of the funk music of that time and has that great mid 70's prodiction that produced so much great music in that style during this era. There are three ballads on this album in "It'll Come,It'll Come,It'll Come","Believe in Me" and "Somebody Told A Lie". Again the "slow jam" nature of these songs put them more in the league with the soul funk era as opposed to anything earlier that tended to sound more Motownish in places. As it turned out "One More Try" is so strong that the bonus tracks here are two versions of it. One is an extended "12 inch Disco Mix" and one is a re edit that emphasizes the heavy percussion of Ralph McDonald and brings the bass of Ralph Centeno as well. More so than the either of their first two albums this would establish their late 70's sound that would contine on throughout the remainder of the decade and in a sense became the basis for their signiture sound as recording artists as opposed to their style as merely producers."