Thanks to the wonderful institution of Amazon's "Listmania" and my relentless search thereof for great 'lost' 60's and 70's rock, folk, country and soul music, I was recently helped into discovering this unique genre-bender of a classic album from Terry Callier. After researching him a bit, I found that this is one of his three most highly-recommended 70's albums, sandwiched in between 1972's Occasional Rain and 1975's I Just Can't Help Myself. Since What Color Is Love was the first I heard about, and has such a classic, evocative cover (yeah, occasionally you CAN judge an album by its cover art), I decided to pick it up first. What a great purchase--I can confidently recommend this album to fans of jazzier folk, more "out-there" folk that is influenced by more wide ranging musical styles than just American roots and blues, as well as more adventurous fans of R&B legends like Marvin Gaye and Al Green who don't mind if their soul is cut with a bit of folk and jazz.The album opens with the spacey "Dancing Girl," in which Callier displays his novel combination of acoustic folk guitar with his soulful, yearning voice that seems to evoke all the best characteristics of 60's/70's black soul, but at the same time transcend the structural trappings of the genre. On first listen, I was immediately impressed with Callier's lyrics--meaningful, mysterious, and thought provoking, on "Dancing Girl," he lays out some mind-blowers ("You'll surely come to harm/With that needle all up in your arm") and some lines that, combined with the power of the music, transcend the words alone ("Anyway you want to do/Boogie, bop, or boogaloo" is priceless in Callier's husky whisper). The song's structure is pretty progressive, with multiple movements and clocking in at over 9 glorious minutes."What Color is Love" and "Just As Long As We're In Love" showcase Callier's strengths as an interpretive singer and his gentle side, backed by female background singers, horns and strings in a delightful blend. "You Goin' To Miss Your Candyman" is one of the album's greatest tracks, with the funkiest soul bassline since Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," and showcasing Callier's uniformly tight, gnarly rhythm section, which often includes some sick bass lines and bongo drums. "Ho Tsing Mee" is a contemplative protest song, deceptively gentle at the beginning, building to a barnstorming climax with Callier's plaintive scat/howl elevating the song to great heights. "I'd Rather Be With You" is the album's closest thing to a typical "on the road" folksong, and the closer is a groovy Bacharach-like blend of horns and background singers repeating "You Don't Care" for a tranquil, meditative end to a real trip of an album.Terry Callier is one of the greatest relatively unknown artists I've discovered lately, and I can't help but recommend him as highly as I can. I'm looking forward to checking out his other classics, and maybe some of his newer music, which I heard is also excellent. Take a chance--I think you'll find Callier rewarding.