Let's Get It On [RCA]

Hip-O's Let's Get It On is an 18-track collection of smooth soul ballads from the '70s to the early 2000s. The collection takes its title from the earliest song here, Marvin Gaye's seminal "Let's Get It On" from 1973. It goes from there to Avant's "Makin' Good Love" from 2002, stopping in between to collect Smokey Robinson's wonderful "Quiet Storm," Luther Vandross's slick cover of Stevie Wonder's "Creepin'," the Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets," and Eugene Wilde's bouncy "Gotta Get You Home Tonight." The disc flows well enough; the mood is never anything less than seductive, though the songs from the '90s sound too mechanical. If the makers of the release had focused on the '70s and '80s, Let's Get It On would have been a much more pleasurable experience. As it is, you find yourself manually skipping some of the clunky tracks like Barry White's leaden "Come On" (from 1994) or Dru Hill's bland "In My Bed," and that won't be very conducive to keeping the mood right. So consider the disc a good idea ruined by poor execution.