Send "Hall and Oates " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 What, exactly, is wrong about Daryl Hall and John Oates? It's not a lack of talent-- they've got a stellar singer (and a pretty good one), and their songs are smart and durable. They're not particularly derivative, aside from their undying love for the Philadelphia soul scene that brought them together, and anyway it's not as if there are many pop artists with a fixation on that particular sound. Hall's a fascinating interview subject. But the pong of tackiness hovers around them, and this lovingly assembled, more-than-complete boxed set doesn't dispel it.The first disc begins with shruggable late-1960s singles by their individual teenage soul projects, the Temptones (Hall) and the Masters (Oates), then surveys the early albums on which Hall and Oates were a nearly hitless cult item ("She's Gone" squeaked up to #60 on the pop charts on its initial release). It ends with five songs from a 1975 London concert, by which point they seem to have settled into being an agreeable, quirky soft-rock band with really nice harmonies and a taste for the smoother end of R&B. On the second disc, though, both their gifts for tune and arrangement and their peculiar lapses of taste start to assert themselves. The heavy, daisy-chained hooks of "Gino (The Manager)" are ahead of their time-- it wouldn't sound far out of place on an A.C. Newman album-- but it is, in fact, about their then-manager (Tommy Mottola!), and for this set, Hall has jarringly replaced the original recording's drums and remixed it. "I Don't Wanna Lose You" is an airy Philly disco pastiche with a great chorus, but Hall nearly sinks it with oversinging. Oates takes the lead for a totally unnecessary cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". Perfectly nice grooves are defaced with curlicues of check-out-my-bulging-forehead-veins saxophone. Everything is bluntly in earnest. (Hall, in the liner notes, on "Wait for Me": "It's a true story. I was feeling a certain way. I sat down and wrote the song and there it is." Well, that settles that.)...full text |
| Blogcritics |
| It's no secret. When it comes to music, I get nostalgic. Step into my office or ride with me in the car and you're just as likely to hear me playing an album that came out in the '70s or '80s as you are to hear something released last week. My kids would be the first to agree if you accused me of being lost in time, but I protest. Sure, part of the appeal of music from the past is the memories tied to it. It seems like yesterday "Private Eyes" and "Maneater" were blaring through the speakers as we danced beneath the red and blue reflections from a disco ball in the high school gym. I remember driving a car without a parent in the front seat for the first time – "Rich Girl" was cranked on the radio. However, to say I thoroughly enjoyed this box set strictly for the memories it recalled would be a gross understatement. When it comes right down to it, these are classic songs, written by major talents. Do I sound like a curmudgeon if I say 'they just don't write 'em like that anymore'? So be it. Known for the blues-tinged brand of rock and roll, the duo burst on the scene in 1972 with their debut release Whole Oates and released a total of 18 albums, including a covers album in 2004 and a Christmas album in 2006. They reached their apex of popularity in the early '80s with the platinum and double platinum releases Voices (1980), Private Eyes (1981), H2O (1982), and Big, Bam, Boom (1984). Most of the chart-topping singles that adorn Disc 3 of this four-disc collection come from those albums, which would make you think it's my favorite of the bunch. I'll admit it's spent a good amount of time spinning in the CD player, but the real treasure of the box set is the collection of gold nuggets: live performances and previously unreleased tracks....full text |
| Soultracks |
| In some ways, the most surprising thing about the four disc Hall and Oates compilation, Do What You Want, Be What You Are, is that it took so long to be released. After all, H&O is, by a wide margin, the best selling vocal duo of all time. But, in many ways, the world wouldn't have been ready for a Hall & Oates boxed set ten years ago, when seemingly every artist of any note was compiling outtakes, live performances and demos into elaborate compilations. Back then H&O were still paying the price for their fame -- particularly their 80s big hair success -- and were considered by many as hitmakers but not artists, much in the way the Bee Gees had been treated during the 90s. But a funny thing happened as the new millennium arose. A new generation of less cynical singers who grew up on hits from "She's Gone" to "I Can't Go For That" were not only noncritical of H&O's past, but openly acknowledged their love for duo's contribution to popular music. Combine that with the group's re-emergence via the #1 song "Do It For Love" and a high profile tour with Michael McDonald and AWB, and a new appreciation arose for the nearly four decades of infectious, soulful pop music that made up the H&O discography. But it isn't the big hits that make the meticulously compiled Do What You Want so fun, even though they're all here; most of their fans already have those songs in multiple formats. And it isn't the pre-Hall & Oates tracks of Daryl and John that dot the early part of disc one, or the live versions (of varying quality) of more obscure songs; those are purely for completists among their fans. What really makes the compilation so special is the inclusion of well selected album tracks that may have received limited airplay when they were new, but which have sadly been forgotten over the course of years. So quality cuts from the 70s like "Love You Like A Brother," "Had I Known You Better," "Back Together Again," "Fall In Philadelphia," and perhaps their greatest true Philly soul cut, "It's Uncanny," hit like a fresh splash of water, sounding terrific more than three decades after they were first recorded. Sure, it's great hearing "Rich Girl" and the seminal "Sara Smile" again, but my smile was from rediscovering killer songs like "Camelia" and the haunting "August Day."...full text |
Hall and Oates lyrics
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