Gene Chandler's second LP for Brunswick suffers from comparisons to its predecessor, but consider how difficult it must have been to top an album padded with several tracks previously released as Constellation singles. The two singles here, "Those Were the Good Old Days" and "There Was a Time," are as good as anything he'd recorded for the label. Though the titles evoke similar themes, they're radically different songs. The first is (as expected) a good-time nostalgia tune with a sweet female chorus, but the second is a torrid horn-driven salute to the best dances of recent years; one looks back to the heady Chicago soul of
the Impressions, while the other looks ahead to the increasingly intense urban funk of
Curtis Mayfield.
Chandler again displays an amazing mastery of voice control, adding brilliant tossed-off vocals between lines on the choruses. He also shows off his growing compositional skills by co-writing half of the songs here, including the highlights "Blind Heart," "Teacher Teacher," and "Laughter to Tears." The production is a bit too polished for his occasionally gritty voice, but
There Was a Time is nevertheless an excellent LP.