Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression / Phase II

Album Review

A two-for-one CD reissue of Margie Joseph's two early-'70s albums for Stax, with the addition of lengthy liner notes by Stax authority Rob Bowman. Like some of Stax's product from this era, there's a Stax-meets-Motown air to much of the material. Although Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression was cut in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, some orchestral and vocal overdubs were done in Detroit, perhaps accounting for some of the Motown feel. Makes a New Impression was actually a fair seller, making number 67 on the pop charts and number seven on the soul listings, and containing an extended cover of "Stop! In the Name of Love" that was a small R&B hit. Much the same approach was used on the subsequent Phase II, right down to another drawn-out Supremes cover (of "My World Is Empty Without You"), but the album sold poorly. Both records are agreeably competent, intelligently varied mainstream soul. Unfortunately, this does not include her non-LP Stax tracks, among them 1970s "Your Sweet Lovin'," the only one besides "Stop! In the Name of Love" to make the R&B charts.