Honey Cone

• Sweet Replies [Hot Wax, 1971] B+
• Soulful Tapestry [Hot Wax, 1971] B-
• Greatest Hits [HDH, 1990]

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Sweet Replies [Hot Wax, 1971]
I know "Want Ads" is pure Jackson 5, but most of this is pure Vandellas. Producer-songwriter Ronald Dunbar must have had lots of advice from label owners Holland-Dozier-Holland--he uses every H-D-H trick and comes up with a few electronic effects of his own on this sturdy LP. Highlights: "Are You Man Enough, Are You Strong Enough" (to raise another man's child), "The Day I Found Myself" (was the day I left you). B+

Soulful Tapestry [Hot Wax, 1971]
Just as Sweet Replies repeated two cuts from the dud debut Take Me With You, this one repeats two from Sweet Replies--only not verbatim, which must make it all right. Wish they'd improved "The Day I Found Myself," rearranged and lengthened at a slower tempo, and "Want Ads," dulled with a bassier mix and stretched with orchestral break and vocal coda. I do like "Stick-Up," by "ABC" out of "Want Ads," and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," by "La Bamba" out of "Come a Little Bit Closer." But I don't like "Monkey" so much I want the encore. And filler is filler, even Dozier's and Holland's. B-

Greatest Hits [HDH, 1990]