Lou Ragland: Lou Ragland Is the Conveyor - He Says "Understand Each Other" (milky clear vinyl) [NUMERO]

Why you'll love it

Numero's reissue puts this cult soul record back on milky clear vinyl, 45 years after it first came out. Its eight songs include the title track, "What Happened to the Feeling" and "The Next World," produced by Mahmud and Mustafa.

This edition

• Milky clear vinyl

About the album

Lou Ragland spent years as a working musician in Cleveland, Ohio, singing, writing and playing in the city's soul scene, and this album is where he finally got to say his piece at full length. Numero, the Chicago reissue label, had already championed his music on the anthology I Travel Alone. The title says it plainly enough, and the songs back it up with warmth rather than preaching.

"Understand Each Other" sets the tone, "What Happened to the Feeling," "Since You Said You'd Be Mine" and "Just for Being You (Lovin' You)" keep the love songs coming, and "It's Got to Change" and "The Next World" turn to the bigger picture. Side B closes with an instrumental take of the title track, so you get to hear the band stretch out on its own.

Ragland passed away in 2020, and records like this are why collectors have kept his name alive. A good soul record makes you want to call someone you've lost touch with; this one might actually get you to dial.

Also at Kops: more Lou Ragland on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Numero Group (cat# NUM1285), a reissue of the 1977 album.