Motown is probably the label that's given me most pleasure through the years, so to pick out the best of all their wonderful albums would be impossible, but if I tried this certainly belongs to top five. It seems they hit all the nails at once here. Top vocals, excellent backing and inventive arrangement applied on well chosen songs, making it both sincere and incredibly catchy. It was their last to be handeled by Holland-Dozier-Holland and also became their most successful album, spawning six US top 20 singles, whereof the title track reaching #1. Apart from doing Motown indoor products they also cover one Tim Hardin song - "If I Were A Carpenter" - and two originally issued by The Monkees - "Last Train To Clarksville" and "I'm A Believer. I kind of like the Monkees own versions, but the ones here come with so much feeling and power the originals almost seem bland in comparison. I could go on celebrating every track, but settle with just three making me do happy moves in my listening chair - "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Bernadette" and "Standing In The Shadows Of Love", the latter a rework of the 1963 Supremes song "Standing At The Crossroads Of Love". For a long time I've been trying to find a US or UK mono, but as those never seem to surface in the local bins I decided to try a stereo. And it's not bad at all. As most UK Motown issues cut loud, but not too loud in this case. Maybe a little unbalanced at parts, but nothing disturbing so enjoyable listening indeed. This is the good stuff and a must for any lover of sixties soul. Issued and reissued on vinyl and CD pretty much all over the world, also 8-track, cassette and 12xfile FLAC. Premiere US on Motown (M/MS 660) https://monolover.blogspot.com/2022/11/four-topsreach-out-mt-660-67-us-mono.html . Early UK came with label as shown here in a laminated flip/back cover. (TÖMÖ*) (FÖRH*)
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