Given the staggering volume of classic soul compilations on the market, sometimes it requires more than just an outstanding selection of music to stand out from the rest. In the case of 's series, each entry is distinguished by the lavish, thoughtful packaging that is the reissue label's hallmark: the mastering is pristine (better than has ever been heard on even the major artists) and the accompanying booklets are authoritative (averaging 60 pages in length, stuffed with color photos, track by track commentary, and related recording data). In short, it's the rare retrospective that's as educational as it is entertaining. And while the series doesn't yield any rare or unreleased material, it does offer a complete portrait of each year in question, licensing tracks from the , , and labels (among others) to create a true panoramic overview of soul music's epic scope and scale. Highlights of the 1965 effort include the ' the and ~ Jason Ankeny