Various artists

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Twinight Records was an important Chicago label whose biggest act was Syl Johnson, a soul-blues artist who gifted the company with seven Top 40 R&B hits in a four-year span. His cocksure cuts don’t appear on this compilation—they’ve been reissued often enough, most recently by Johnson himself (under the old Twinight logo; he was, and apparently remains, part owner). To its credit, Twinight didn’t create an entire stable of Johnson sound-alikes; the bulk of this two-disc anthology is given over to the sweet harmony sounds that Chicago was known for back then.

We’ve often made a point of saying that classic soul is the only music where men and women can go down begging and still have their pride when they get back up—and this latest installment of the Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul series is vulnerability laid bare. Renaldo Domino had a huge hit in Chicago in early 1970 with the pleading “Not Too Cool to Cry,” and quite a few older heads likely will be happy to have it on CD (fiddle solo and all). Nate Evans’s “Main Squeeze” (he wishes he had one) sounds like the lament of dateless “nice guys” everywhere. Jo Ann Garrett is a bit more forthcoming about what she wants on “Goin’ Man Huntin.’” Probably the biggest anomaly on this set is Chuck and Mac’s “Powerful Love,” where the two men sing in unison instead of harmony, coming off like two dudes at the bar casually singing along with the jukebox. If you needed a basic primer of what the classic Chi-town sound was, without the superstars, this set’s a great example.—James Porter