Soul Manifesto is a fancy but accurate title for what is essentially another installment in Rhino's Original Album Series, where all the individual albums are presented as mini-LPs in paper sleeves, slid into a small box, and marketed at a low price. In this case, this rounds up the 12 albums that form the core of the
Otis Redding discography: the five studio albums he released between 1964 and 1967 (
Pain in My Heart,
The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads,
Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul,
The Soul Album,
Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, the
Carla Thomas duet album
King & Queen), the live albums
Live in Europe and
In Person at the Whisky a Go Go, and the four posthumous studio LPs released between 1968 and 1970 (
The Dock of the Bay,
The Immortal Otis Redding,
Love Man,
Tell the Truth). While other rarities were dug up years later -- two noteworthy sets are 1992's
Remember Me and the following year's box set Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding -- this has all the important music
Otis made, all delivered in a handy and affordable little box. If you didn't own this seminal music already, this is a great way to get it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine