Love Unlimited – In Heat

Universal has repressed this in 2022. No mention of remastering. There's a lot of original pressings out there and that's the way to go.The original pressing ,"a pre vinyl shortage , 1970's Columbia pressed disc is nicely mastered. Regardless of all of that......The material , the presentation , the genius of it ..is what matters. This album is a document ,

Incredible, incredible release. Picked this up on the back of the comments below and was blown away listening to it for the first time in full. If you see it, grab it! The price to quality ratio here couldn't be more in your favour.

This is a sonic marvel. They do not produce albums like this anymore. If you want to see what your stereo can do, put this on.

Their best album ever, "In Heat" contains only seven songs and runs only 30 minutes. but it leaves you wanting more. The only song which can be considered a "bum cut" is "I Love You So, Never Gonna Let You Go".

The album kicks off with a great uptempo song, "Move Me No Mountain" (also recorded by Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan), followed by one of the best ballads ever, "Share A Little Love In Your Heart", which only briefly charted on the R&B charts, but is a sumptuous song. Then comes the "side one" closer, a ray of mid-tempo sunshine with the unwieldy title of "Oh I Should Say, It's Such A Beautiful Day".

"Side Two" opener (track four on the CD) goes temporarily into overdrive with "I Needed Love - You Were There", a great song which cooks all the way through. Next up is Love Unlimited's only #1 hit (on the R&B chart), a beautiful declarative ballad, "I Belong to You", which melds a new song to the intro of a six year old tune, "Lost Without the Love of My Guy" by Viola Wills (which was also written and produced by Barry White - his wife Glodean coerced him into writing the group a new song with that intro, as the record had been a favorite of hers). After the aforementioned "I Needed Love..." comes a surprise - a newly orchestrated and recorded VOCAL version of "Love's Theme". Throughout the album, the girls' vocal pyrotechnics are absolutely blazing, these songs inspiring them to new heights which, unfortunately, they never again reached.

This is the album which should have gone top 3 on the Billboard charts, being quite superior to their "Under the Influence of Love Unlimited" album, but that one had the original instrumental "Love's Theme", which was a #1 Pop hit, selling it. It's VERY expensive as an import, upward from $30.00 (and it seems the demand is there - why hasn't it been issued on CD in the US?), but for a great example of beautifully orchestrated mid-70s soul, "In Heat" cannot be beaten.

What a show-case album and faultless, and sonically too!

The tracks just flow and create a stunning collection of emotions.

Barry really was at his production best when this was recorded and very hard to top. Apart from the fact that all the tracks are excellent, the added bonus for Barry and "The Girls" fans was the vocal version of Love's Theme with the orchestrations just subtle different from the original version.

20th C. lost out big time this album could have easily been an outstanding showcase for Quadraphonics.

The album does what it says on the tin. I have no doubt that Glodean gets a big kick and up-lift when she plays this and one to be very proud of. Just short of it's 40th anniversary and it sounds as fresh and alive today as when it first came out. Not many albums can take many re-visits, this is one of those exceptions, enjoy.