The Impressions - Check Out Your Mind! 1970

Just before he departed the Impressions for a solo career, Curtis Mayfield performed on one last album with the group. Check out Your Mind! saw Mayfield departing with class, driven by big, brassy nuggets of psychedelic soul like "Check out Your Mind," "You're Really Something, Sadie," and "(Baby) Turn on to Me." Despite the raised consciousness of the title, Check out Your Mind! also featured quite a few fine examples of traditional sweet soul, like the hit "Can't You See" (which hearkened back to the group's early days), "You'll Always Be Mine," and "Only You." Mayfield wasn't quite the workhorse he seemed to be; though Check out Your Mind! was released around the same time as his solo debut, a few of the songs here weren't really new: he'd originally written both "Madame Mary" and "We Must Be in Love" for the Five Stairsteps, while "Do You Want to Win?" takes elements from both "You're Really Something Sadie" and "(Baby) Turn on Me." Still, there was much more great material than average, and the trio ended with style an eight-year reign as one of the most talented, intelligent, and successful of all soul groups. AMG.

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The Impressions - People Get Ready 1965

As with the previous year's Keep on Pushing, People Get Ready featured another big Curtis Mayfield hit, one that made as strong an impact on the civil-rights movement as on the charts. One of the most beautiful songs of the '60s, "People Get Ready" set the oft-used "gospel train" as its theme, with Mayfield speaking of faith for the present and deliverance in the future, while Sam Gooden and Fred Cash contributed beautiful harmony vocals (and a few lines of their own). That career touchstone aside, the rest of the material on the LP wasn't as strong as Keep on Pushing or the Impressions' marvelous debut. The two winners were "Woman's Got Soul" and "You Must Believe Me," both in a similar brassy, uptown mode as expected from the Chicago soul kingpins. A few of the songs were hauled out from as long as three years ago, like Mayfield's own version of "Can't Work No Longer," a Billy Butler hit he'd produced (also in 1965). The exceptional harmonies and arrangements were still in place, but for a few songs it was clear that Mayfield had tired of concocting novelties that looked back to the age of doo wop. AMG.

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The Impressions - The Young Mod's Forgotten Story 1969

The title read like a concept album (and the opener seemed to introduce a larger idea at work), but The Young Mods' Forgotten Story hung together only as the usual (read: brilliant) late-'60s LP from the Impressions: a few solid songs with a social or inspirational viewpoint and the rest featuring Curtis Mayfield's continuing exploration of love in all its forms. Two of the message songs were among the best of the group's history; "Choice of Colors" tenderly investigated black feelings about race, while the party song "Mighty Mighty (Spade & Whitey)" gave blacks and whites a rare chance to celebrate empowerment together. Mayfield's romantic songs ranged farther than usual, from the innocent, delicate "The Girl I Find" (complete with turtledove cries) to a deconstruction of the end of a long affair ("Seven Years") to the overbearing "Jealous Man," all with great arrangements provided by veteran Johnny Pateand newcomer Donny Hathaway. (Hathaway's addition didn't alter the Impressions' sound significantly, though his harmonic expertise and affinity for the church do find their way into a couple of tracks.) Only one song, "Wherever You Leadeth Me," found the group treading water (it could just as easily have appeared five years earlier). The rest was intriguing late-'60s soul from one of the best acts in the business. AMG.

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