Too Slow to Disco, Vol. 1

Put together by a German operation called How Do You Are?, Too Slow to Disco, the label's first release, is a sharp compilation of popular and deep AOR cuts. It dates back to 1972 for Chicago's "Saturday in the Park" and Tony Joe White's "I've Got a Thing About You Baby" and extends to 1980 for Photoglo's Scaggs-tacular "Steal Away" and Robbie Doobie's -- er, that's Dupree's -- more successful song of the same title. Another major hit here is Nicolette Larson's "Lotta Love," written by Neil Young. Among the deeper highlights are Jan Hammer Group's burbling proto-Air "Don't You Know," Pages' "If I Saw You Again" (from what became the core of Mr. Mister), and Ned Doheny's "Get It Up for Love" (from the songwriter whose songs were more popular when recorded by the likes of Average White Band, Tata Vega, and Chaka Khan). Indeed, most of these songs are a few BPMs too slow for causing much motion on dancefloors, but there a lot of relaxed grooves that prompt, at the least, some light foot tapping. ~ Andy Kellman