Consumer Guide Album

Jackie Moore: Sweet Charlie Babe [Atlantic, 1973]
Figures that this should fall somewhere between state-of-the-art and great-mean soul: the five hits go back to "Precious, Precious" in the winter of '71, with the two latest cut at a funkier-than-usual Sigma in Philadelphia and the others by a simpler-than-usual Crawford-Shapiro team at Criteria in Miami. Moore's voice is simultaneously sweet and rough, an unusual combination in a woman, and the songs are pretty consistent. But she lacks not only persona but personality, so that what in technical terms is pretty impressive stuff never goes over the top. B+