The Complete Studio Albums, Vol. II

The lie in the title of this box set from Fania is mostly forgivable, since the set does include exactly half of the studio albums that Héctor Lavoe issued as a frontman during his career. But any appreciation of Lavoe's talents has to include the great Willie Colón records he appeared on during the late '60s and early '70s — The Hustler, Cosa Nuestra, Lo Mato, The Big Break - La Gran Fuga, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (at least three of which belong in the all-time salsa Top Ten). But the aim of this set is to focus on Lavoe's time as a bandleader, when he was able to transmit his thoughts into songwriting on a far more direct and emotional level than he had previously. (Witness his seismic solo hit, "Periodico de Ayer," which roughly translates as newspapers of the past.) The Complete Studio Albums, Vol. 1 has four original LPs — 1975's La Voz, 1976's De Ti Depende (It's Up to You), 1978's Comedia, and 1979's Recordando a Felipe Pirela (which included Lavoe disciple Daniel Santos) — which include one classic (La Voz) and at least two others that are worth hearing for fans of his work with Colón (it's the albums on the second solo set from the '80s that see his quality drop). There are no liner notes for any of the albums, or the set as a whole, just reproductions of the LPs as digipack CDs.