If Isaac Hayes had retired after his Stax years, he would have ranked as one of the most important artists in soul music history. But he was just getting warmed up, tossing aside the "book" that he helped write, creating this incredibly innovative and beautiful masterpiece. At the time this came out, you couldn't have paid me to listen to Burt Bacharach (sorry, Dionne) or Jimmy Webb (Glenn Campbell! ). But Mr. Hayes' unique mix of laid-back tempo, lush string arrangements, funky rhythm section, and smokey vocals, turned those tunes into something unforgetable. This is one of those rare albums that showed a new path of ever-expanding possibilities. And, as mentioned by some of the other reviewers, it is a damn fine make-out jam.