It was, perhaps, a sad commentary on certain features of today's music scene that one could predict with almost complete accuracy the erroneous hatchet jobs which passed for "critiques" of "Smokey," Robinson's first solo album since splitting with the Miracles.

That album had nine tracks. Two were not written by Smokey and thus not wholly his meat. Of the other seven "Just My Soul Responding," "Holly" "Sweet Harmony," "A Silent Partner in A Three-Way Love Affair" and "Baby Come Close" were as good as most of the stuff he recorded previously. That sort of success ratio doesn't make an album a stinker. "Pure Smokey" is Robinson's second solo shot and is a disappointment after the promise of "Smokey." The ballads aren't as strong as "Holly" or "Baby Come Close"; the refined rockers aren't as compelling as "Just My Soul Responding." The topics Robinson's newer songs deal with are...