Reviewed by Eric Saeger
With 20 years of singing primordial disco-house under his belt, Owens is without question the Barry-White-and-Smoky-Robinson-rolled-into-one of the genre. Are you jealous, though, particularly when you consider that no one most of you know has ever heard of him? I mean, there are major velvet-rope hits and collaborations with people like Frankie Knuckles in his past, and on this new 2-count-em-disc set he spreads knob duties between Atjazz and some newer guys (but mostly, stubbornly, with his old Fingers Inc partner Larry Heard), and blah de blah, more name-dropping, top of their game, and disk 2 has more urgent-sounding stuff than disk 1, etc. In the end, though, it’s like with progressive house vs. Lady Gaga: the line between this stuff and legit chart-topper material is paper-thin but impenetrable somehow, at times giving off the air of a guy trying to get out of his own way. And doesn’t disco still suck, or did I miss the meeting?
Grade: B-
