I listened to the reissue last week & was surprised by the rough mixes from different decades of different songs. Not sure if I would count this as a new lp but it is interesting to hear Shuggie on acoustic solo live in concert play a unheard song "Black Belt Sherriff" .

The title track "Wings of Love" sounds like a hybrid of Toto/Journey & Shuggie Otis even expanding the usual song time to a total of 13 minutes! Not sure what exactly happened but I'm guessing Shuggie's studio team of mixing & engineers flew the coup a long time ago. One interesting takeaway is in a interview Shuggie said this disc was recorded 90-2000. I doubt that w/ the first few songs sounding like mid/late seventies. Wings of Love seems to be recorded all over the place.

I think all that is needed from this reissue is a once over. This seems to be a hodge podge of studio demo tracks in different stages of evolution. I would suggest Shuggie fans not go ballistic over it because while it is interesting to hear, it is clear that Shuggie will need new material soon recorded in the same mixing/production as Inspiration Information for him to make any sort of dent where it concerns general interest.

I'd classify this as fairly more commercial in sound for this collection of songs. There is the bluesy sound,pop & rock Aor sound/Folk sound/disco soul sound/ This reissue is clearly for the Shuggie diehard fanatic & while it has its moments, I can't really co-sign on the overall sound of this. People expecting the same quality as Inspiration Information will be disappointed. Some of these songs have cringe worthy Captain Picard face palm moments in the production & marketed direction. Welcome back, Shuggie after 39 years of musical absence on the record shelves. Now let's see what you can really do. Wings of Love should be renamed Wings of Varied Likeability.

Rating:

6 out of 10