Smokey certainly isn't the consistently stunning writer he was in the Sixties. His bitter-sweet love songs have lost their sharpness but he's matured as a composer with considerable dignity and has occasionally responded to the challenge of writing interesting lyrics about home, family and more adult topics which superceded those in the older songs of teenage love.

Consequently, his recent albums have been professionally done affairs with one or two tracks retaining the grace and appeal of his best work.

Since splitting with the Miracles in 1972 I can think of only one Robinson solo album, "Smokey's Family Robinson" in 1976, that was a total disappointment. On the four albums since then …, there have been plenty of the composer's creamy rich melodies from the jaunty "It's A Good Night" to the romantic "I Love The Nearness Of You" …, from the hipness of "Cruisin'" to the conscious cuteness of "Shoe Soul...