The Artistics: "I Want You To Make My Life Over"

Heavenly soul from Chicago’s Brunswick label.  The usual session suspects can be found in the production and arrangement credits—Carl Davis, Eugene Record, Johnny Pate, Willie Henderson, Tom Tom Washington.  They craft a similar sound for the Artistics as they did for Record’s own Chi-Lites, with subtle strings, uptown grooves and swooning harmonies all coming together to form a vision that could only come from Chicago.  The material the group performs on this album is more diverse than the usual effort of this kind; instead of pulling from the regular pool of Chicago songwriters, they go in all directions, covering “Out In The Country” (also done on the Bobby Taylor LP discussed in this same post), “What The World Needs Now Is Love,” and “That Lucky Old Sun,” putting those modern standards alongside more progressive soul material like “Just Another Heartache,” “Sugar Cane,” “Trouble, Heartache & Pain,” “Nothing But Heartaches” and the majestic title track (geez, what is it with these guys and heartache?).  To me, what stands out about these Chicago-soul-dream-team-produced-and-arranged records is the mood and the combination of elements used—like so much of the music coming out of the Windy City at that time, the use of musical aspects that would perhaps be disparate in lesser hands is masterfully orchestrated (figuratively and literally), with the harmonies, fuzz guitars, strings, horns and funk rhythms all coalescing into one magnificently soulful, uniquely American gumbo.