Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul -1969- -eac-flac- Portable Jun 2026

Hot Buttered Soul is not background music. It is mood music for people who have a lot of feelings and a good stereo system.

Do yourself a favor. Drop the needle (or open the folder). Skip to the 7-minute mark of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Turn it up. And bow to the Black Moses.

The shortest track, but no less potent. A traditional soul arrangement that serves as the palate cleanser before the main course. It proves Hayes could write a standard radio hit if he wanted to; he just chose not to. Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul -1969- -EAC-FLAC-

The album closer is a near-18-minute odyssey. It begins with an eight-minute spoken-word prologue. Hayes talks to the listener, explaining the narrative of a man leaving his lover, with a raw, conversational vulnerability. When the strings finally swell and the singing begins, the emotional payoff is devastating. It remains one of the most ambitious tracks in soul history.

The album’s four tracks are monumental in scale, featuring deep, orchestral arrangements backed by the reconstituted . Isaac Hayes 'Hot Buttered Soul' Album Review - Vivascene Hot Buttered Soul is not background music

EAC uses a technique called and sector re-synchronization . It reads every sector of the CD multiple times. If the data doesn’t match, it re-reads it. If the CD is scratched, EAC slows down the drive speed to milliseconds per sector to extract the 1s and 0s accurately.

It was part of Stax Records' "instant catalog" of 27 albums released simultaneously to rebuild their library after a split with Atlantic Records. Drop the needle (or open the folder)

The opener is a 12-minute reimagining of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard. Hayes stripped the song of its pop lightness and draped it in velvet melancholy. The use of the wah-wah pedal—played by Hayes himself—creates a rhythmic, almost aquatic texture that underpins the track. It is a masterclass in tension and release.

This track allows the listener a brief respite from the epic length of the other songs, but it remains dense with emotion and the rich, baritone delivery that earned Hayes the nickname "Black Moses."

Having failed to launch a successful solo career with his debut, Presenting Isaac Hayes , the "Black Moses" was given a paltry budget and a simple instruction: make a cheap album. Instead, Hayes, along with arranger Johnny Allen and producer Al Bell, created a $50,000 masterpiece of hubris and genius.