Very Best of
Rose Royce was the most anonymous of disco hit-makers. They  scored 11 R&B; top 30 singles, but the fact that they had four lead  vocalists couldn't have helped cement their image, and neither can  their range of material, from funk-pop stomps ("Car Wash," "Do Your  Dance") to smoldering slow ones. Originally assembled by psychedelic  soul controller Norman Whitfield as a post-Motown project, the group  gradually drifted from disco downpours to Quiet Storm drizzle. After  their full-throttle debut with theCar Washsoundtrack, diminishing  returns set in, though this compilation cherry picks the good album  tracks from later records as well as the hits. But Whitfield's presence  insured that there was usually something unconventional happening in  the mix--check the Space Invaders bass on the ballad "Love Don't Live  Here Anymore"--and the songs Whitfield and his stable handed them were  powerful and resonant, including the original versions ofMary J. Blige's  "I'm Going Down" and the much-covered "Wishing on a Star."--Douglas  Wolk