In the early days of the CD age, Motown released an astonishing number of CDs, including a whole line of single-disc sets that contained two original records on one CD. Motown's initial CD two-fers were criticized in many quarters for shoddy, unattractive packaging and indifferent remastering, but less discriminating consumers found them perfectly acceptable, since they offered a lot of music at a reasonable price. By the mid-'90s, Motown eventually phased these discs out of print, replacing them with remastered individual discs, but some of the records never were re-released on CD, which made this series valuable for Motown collectors. This particular disc contained two latter-day
Supremes albums,
Join the Temptations and Together. Like many Motown albums of the '60s, they're uneven, containing a couple of great singles, a few solid album tracks and some filler, but they're worth exploring by hardcore fans, especially in this context, since the highlights on both records tend to balance out the weaknesses. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine