by Jason Ankeny
This two-disc set is a goldmine, assembling in their entirety the three hard-to-find LPs the Whispers recorded for the Janus label during the early 1970s, along with a handful of period B-sides and unreleased cuts. It's fascinating to follow the group's evolution from the harmony ballads and slow jams that comprise Love Story to the shimmering, up-tempo Philly soul of Bingo -- truth be told, the first disc weighs a little too heavily on the slow stuff, but beginning with their second Janus effort, Life and Breath, the Whispers really began to hit their stride, infusing their lush, confectionary soul with an increasingly pronounced dancefloor edge.