Album Reviews : Isaac Hayes, “Raw and Refined” and “Branded,” Point Blank/Virgin.
The biggest drawback of this two-album effort is that Hayes seems stuck in a time warp. “Raw and Refined,” an instrumental collection, contains tracks so sanitized that they evoke the wanna-be-hip background music from “Mod Squad.” On “Branded,” the old wah-wah pedal rules. Even a guest appearance by rapper Chuck D. doesn’t modernize matters.
New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).
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