Soul Spin
Released: November 1969
Running completely low on ideas, Motown decided to saddle the Four Tops with a bunch of cover songs. I think only four of the 12 songs germinate from Motown songwriters while the rest are pop songs by white artists. Hence the title Soul Spin.
Get it?
They’re giving a soulful spin to white music.
The gimmick sucks.
Of the covers, only “Light My Fire” is worth a damn. “Look Out Your Window” is okay. “Lost In a Pool of Red” is also okay musically, a psychedelic soul excursion. The lyrics are fairly daring for Motown in 1969, too, since it’s about a drug trip gone wrong.
“Pool of Red” is a 6.5/10. The other two are 6/10. Everything else is bad or worse.
Tellingly not a single song was released as a single and this album dropped light dead weight on the charts.
ALBUM GRADE: D
Still Waters Run Deep
Released: March 1970
Thank you soulful gods for this album.
It’s not great or exceptionable, but after wandering aimlessly in 1968 and 1969, the Four Tops found their footing again as 1970 dawned with Still Waters Run Deep. Frank Wilson had worked with the Tops since HDH, but here he is given full control of the production. As with the Supremes, he could sometimes go overboard, especially on subsequent albums; but here, like with the first Supremes album he produced, he kept the gimmicks under control.
“Still Water (Love)” is easily the best song on this album and the best Four Tops song since the Reach Out album. It’s the O.G. of cruise ship stepping tunes. The lyrics do not matter here. It’s all about the flow and feel, and this songs flows and feels like a shimmering sunset. Released as a single, the song hit #4 R&B and #11 pop.
The other single release was a cover of “It’s All in the Game”, which saw Levi Stubbs share lead vocals with his fellow Tops for the first time on a single, I believe. The stately ballad reached #6 R&B and #24 pop.
Admittedly, those two songs carry a lot of this album, but it’s only 10 songs and 30 minutes long. It’s not an LP that overstays its welcome.
The cover of “Reflections” is a little too echoey, but is fine. Their cover “Everybody’s Talking” is fairly fun. The message song “Love (Is the Answer)” is corny but appreciated and not too heavy handed. The concluding song is actually a rendition “Still Water (Love)” but this time titled “Still Water (Peace)”. The lovely peppiness of the opener is instead appropriately replaced with a meditation by the Four Tops on finding peace of mind.
There’s a couple of duds— “L.A. (My Town)” and “Elusive Butterfly”— but this is a marked improvement over what the Tops had put out in the previous two years.
Still Waters Run Deep reached #3 on the R&B album charts and #21 on the pop charts.
ALBUM GRADE: C+
SONG SCORES
Still Water (Love): 10/10
Reflections: 6/10
It's All In the Game: 8/10
Everybody's Talking: 7/10
Love (Is the Answer): 6/10
I Wish I Were Your Mirror: 5/10
Elusive Butterfly: 3/10
Bring Me Together: 5/10
L.A. (My Town): 4/10
Still Water (Peace): 7/10