VA - Invictus - Soul Box Set (2006)

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
It's sure hard to call Castle's 2006 triple-disc box a "deluxe" release -- it has the drab title of Invictus Soul Box Set and it's just slapped together in a CD-sized cardboard box, containing good liner notes by Peter Doggett but little else in the way of packaging (there are no photos from the label, either of the artists or the singles, anywhere to be found). This stands in contrast to Castle's previous treatment of the Invictus catalog, when they released a bunch of stellar single-artist retrospectives in the early 2000s, but ultimately it doesn't matter: on a sheer musical level, Invictus Soul Box Set is superb. It follows no strict chronological order, jumping from year to year within each disc, but it roughly breaks down to having the biggest hits on the first disc, follow-ups and neglected treasures on the second, with the funkiest stuff reserved for third. This gives the box a flow, but the truth is, this music could be played in random order and it would still be satisfying because each cut was designed to stand on its own merits as a single. Ironically, several of the versions showcased here are album versions -- such as Flaming Ember's dynamic "Westbound Number Nine" -- instead of singles, but these are subtle differences that do not change the overall effect of this box's addictive onslaught of soul. Holland-Dozier-Holland's skills as writers, producers, and overall talent scouts and shepherds were not diminished at all. Invictus released some of the first Parliament recordings, after all. What is most impressive is the sheer variety of sound and style here: there's the exuberant, colorful Chairmen of the Board, the female empowerment soul of Freda Payne, the Honey Cone, and Laura Lee, the smooth seduction of Holland-Dozier-Holland's own work, the ferocious blue-eyed soul of Flaming Ember, the down-n-dirty funk of Ruth Copeland, and the bright, big, poppy soul of the 8th Day and 100 Proof Aged in Soul. This is certainly '70s to its very core -- all flared pants, afros, paisleys, wah-wah guitars, sweeping strings, and horny horns -- but while it effortlessly evokes its time, it also transcends it, never sounding dated. There is an abundance of imagination in the production, and if it was neither as seismic, influential, or popular as Motown, this is a body of work that stands proudly alongside it -- and there has never been a better place to get immersed in the glory of Invictus than on this splendid box.