Love's Train: The Best of Funk Essentials Ballads

Some multiple-artists compilations satisfy more than others. On some you enjoy a few cuts, while others are use to accentuate romantic encounters -- the kind you lay on the CD player, push "repeat all," and go for it, knowing the music is set. This collection is like that. It begins soft and slow with "Baby Blues" by the Love Unlimited Orchestra featuring Barry White; it kicks into second with Con Funk Shun's "Love's Train" and hits high gear on Stephanie Mills' electrifying closer "Feel the Fire."The different styles offer a cornucopia of love jams. Everything from Randy Brown's deep soul romp "I Wanna Make Love to You" to Kool & the Gang's jazzy, synthesized "Summer Madness." You won't find any disappointing edited versions, either; seven minutes and twenty seconds of "Heaven Must Be Like This" by the Ohio Players attest to that.