Hot Buttered Soul

\Hot Buttered Soul was Isaac Hayes' second studio album, released in 1969 and was a landmark in soul music.

Hot Buttered Soul broke radically away from the standard three-minute song format, and instead consisted of just four tracks -- two pop song covers and two originals -- with lengths ranging from 5 to 18 minutes.

Hayes demonstrated his great skill as an arranger with these slow-burning epics, starting with a cover of the Bacharach and David classic, "Walk on By". Second was "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", an uptempo slice of funk with wah-wah guitar and rolling pianos. "One Woman", at just over five minutes the shortest track on the album, is a quietly beautiful track about the difficulties of love. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is another epic to finish the album. After an eight-minute spoken introduction, the song slowly builds up to a stunning climax of horns, strings, organs and vocals.

The album was notable for its use of innovative production techniques, and has deeply influenced a great deal of subsequent soul, hip hop and Motown music.