Don’t know who Emitt Rhodes is? Awesome, that makes one more person I’m cooler than. Woefully unheard of and under-appreciated, Rhodes released four albums in four years. He gained critical success and cracked the top 40 in 1971, but after becoming entangled in a legal battle with his record label for not satisfying his contract (requiring one album every six months), he sank into obscurity. Music-snob legend has it that he purchased the house across the street from his parents’ and set up a studio (and a website that hasn’t been updated for a few years claims that you can still contact Rhodes to record with him, in the garage). Rhodes was gifted with the kind of talent that most of us will never lay claim to. He wrote, produced, performed and engineered all of his releases at home, on a four-track reel-to-reel. The songs are pop gems, and Rhodes, tagged  “the one-man Beatles” by some, bears a strong musical resemblance to Paul McCartney in particular. With this release, Hip-oselect was thoughtful enough to give us Rhodes’ entire catalog on two discs, complete with a 15-page booklet to pore over while getting an earful of catchy, intricate, radio-ready pop that deserves to be heard and enjoyed by a larger audience. Maybe this release will widen the ripple of recognition beyond the people who make it their business to know.

- Susie Ulrey