BILLY PAUL
360 Degrees of Billy Paul (Legacy)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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Sweet, melancholy R&B from one of many, many singers that disappeared nearly completely after charting both on R&B and pop charts in the early '70s. Billy Paul was an amazing singer, and even though this is a recording truly stuck to its time, there have been so many revivals of this type of music that this could have been recorded yesterday. The music is loaded with guitar pops and blues licks, strings, horns, wonderfully cheesy, tinny keyboards, and the occasional sitar. But the focus here, of course, is Billy Paul's voice, and these songs about what it's like to be black in the early '70s are so personal and riveting they're almost uncomfortable to listen to.

© 2002 - Holly Day