Hidden Gems

トータル・セールス3,000万枚以上、グラミー賞通算8部門受賞!世界を魅了したR&Bの至宝、ルーサー・ヴァンドロスが残した隠れ名曲集。今作ではルーサー・ヴァンドロスのアルバムからの隠れた名曲、映画のサウンドトラック用に書き下ろした曲、またレアなライヴ音源など、これまでベスト盤などには収録されてこなかった名曲のみを収録。広いR&Bファンにとってはヒット曲だけでは知られることのない新たなルーサーに出会える機会であり、そして往年のファンにとってもこれらの音源が1枚に収録されることはこれまでなかった貴重な作品。
ソニー・ミュージック

Three of the 15 songs on this Luther Vandross compilation qualify as hidden. Out of those three, one was released on the soundtrack to Hero (1992), another was pulled from the soundtrack to Money Train (1995), and the third track was a bonus cut on the Japanese edition of Luther Vandross (2001). They are not quite gems, but dedicated fans should be happy to have them in one spot. Out of the remaining dozen tracks, two come from gold-selling releases and ten were issued on albums that went platinum and double platinum. So, those are not exactly hidden or "seldom heard," as a press release was crazy enough to claim. Hidden Gems is more like the missing fifth disc from the Love, Luther box set released in 2007. Between the releases, only two songs overlap, and this adds depth with not much filler, though it could have been more generous with '80s cuts and not so reliant upon relatively tepid '90s material. The liner notes, written by Vandross' longtime associate Fonzi Thornton, are a great touch. ~ Andy Kellman