Ashford & Simpson - Come As You Are (1976)

One of Ashford & Simpson's best Warner Bros. albums, especially from a production standpoint. The mix between up-tempo and slow, love songs and dance tunes was perfect, and their interaction had been honed to the point where each anticipated the other. Simpson's soaring vocals and Ashford's less-impressive but still strong support, plus their outstanding harmonizing, was at its peak.
By the time Nick & Val released their third album the disco era was in full swing. Therefore some heavy thought was put into this album in terms of it's playability on the dancefloor. Since their debut "Gimme Something Real" several years earlier it was one of their most musically exciting albums up until this point,emphasizing a lot of strong rhythmic exhanges that would typify their sound for the rest of the decade. Songs such as "One More Try","Caretaker" and "Tell It All" have a delightfully delicious jazz-funk flavor to them,all helped along by the rhythm section of Stuff with Richard Tee's destinctive revered/phased electric piano being the main highlite. "Sell The House" is an excellent song of longing and the music is incredible. The slow crawling groove,wah wah's and the bubbling bassline put it smack dab in the center of the funk music of that time and has that great mid 70's prodiction that produced so much great music in that style during this era. There are three ballads on this album in "It'll Come,It'll Come,It'll Come","Believe in Me" and "Somebody Told A Lie". Again the "slow jam" nature of these songs put them more in the league with the soul funk era as opposed to anything earlier that tended to sound more Motownish in places. More so than the either of their first two albums this would establish their late 70's sound that would contine on throughout the remainder of the decade and in a sense became the basis for their signiture sound as recording artists as opposed to their style as merely producers.

Track List:
01. "It'll Come, It'll Come, It'll Come" - 2:53
02. "One More Try" - 3:26
03. "Believe In Me" - 5:20
04. "Caretaker" - 3:53
05. "Somebody Told A Lie" - 5:49
06. "Tell It All" - 5:15
07. "Sell The House" - 3:20
08. "It Came To Me" - 3:53

Release Date: 1976
Label: Warner Bros.
Genre: Soul
Length: 33:45
Producer: Ashford & Simpson

Personnel:
Valerie Simpson - Vocals, Keyboards
Nickolas Ashford - Vocals
Rick Marotta - Drums
Hugh McCracken - Guitar
Jeff Mironov - Guitar
Richard Tee - Keyboards
Elliott Randall - Guitar
Ray Simpson - Vocals
Joshie Armstead - Vocals
Don Grolnick - Keyboards