The Lost Generation: 'Young, Tough and Terrible'

I love The Pretenders, but when I want to hear "Thin Line Between Love and Hate," I turn to The Lost Generation. In fact, I'd rather hear The Lost Generation's rendition of the song than The Persuaders' version ... and lord knows I love The Persuaders.

The Lost Generation, a Chicago soul group influenced mightily by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, sound like the spent a lot of time in Philadelphia because their music shares the lush production, silky harmonies and burning funk of Philly soul groups like The Intruders, The O'Jays and The Spinners.

"Young, Tough and Terrible" is a flat-out beautiful soul album; "The Young, Tough and Terrible," "The Lost Generation" and "Thin Line Between Love and Hate," of course, are almost perfect chill tunes. "Sure is Funky," "Paulette" and "Talking the Teenage Language" are funky enough to start a riot. There's some nifty guitar work on the album, too.

The group's cover of "Tire of Being Alone" doesn't match Al Green's, but what could? Everything else on "Young, Tough and Terrible" is classic soul. Get this album while you can.