It’s been an arduous couple of weeks for me in terms of my music listening. Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates, is the third four-disc box set (after Big Star: Keep An Eye On the Sky, and Where the Action Is! L.A. Nuggets 1965 – 1968 ) that I’ve reviewed in that period. I don’t know if this is true for other writers, but reviewing large collections like these is more difficult for me than reviewing single albums. You are forced to stay focused on one artist or genre for an extended period of time. My attention span just doesn’t work that way naturally. But enough bitching about my relatively minuscule concerns.

I am tempted to compare Hall and Oates to another band that I wrote about recently: the Four Seasons. This may sound somewhat dubious at first, but bear with me. Both groups were singles-oriented, and had multiple hits. Neither group ever got much in terms of respect from the musical tastemakers. I’m sure this didn’t make a damn bit of difference to them as they were cashing their royalty checks. My point is, do we really need a four-disc career retrospective from a group that lived and died on their single releases? Wouldn’t a two-disc greatest hits compilation do the trick? The answers aren’t all that obvious. In fact, it’s a tough call.

Daryl Hall and John Oates had six number one singles. In addition to these, they had 10 Top 10 hits. You know these songs, and yes, you probably love them. For people of a certain age, these songs are a soundtrack to their lives. I’m talking about songs like “Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My Lips,” “Maneater,” and my favorite of the number ones, “Out of Touch.” There are the early jewels like “She’s Gone,” and “Sara Smile,” and later hits like “Everything Your Heart Desires.” They are all included in this set, and I’m happy to hear them again. (more…)