Certainly Edwin's most enduring album for Motown, and the one that had him shifting from groovy Agent OO Soul into the heavier soul artist who cut the classic War (What Is It Good For)! The album's also got a killer version of "California Soul", one of the best Motown-penned tracks from the time, plus the tracks Time, I Just Wanted To Cry, and She Should Have Been Home.

Sondra ‘Blinky’ Williams' professional career started back in the early 1960s as a member of The COGICS (Church Of God In Christ Singers). Along with twin brother Andrew Crouch, Gloria Jones, Frankie Karl, Billy Preston and Edna Wright the group toured widely, recording an obscure 1964 single for the small Simpson label: 'It's A Blessing' b/w 'Since I Found Him' (Simpson catalog number 273). The group also recorded a gospel LP "It's a Blessing".
Williams subsequently went on to a solo career, starting with a 1964 single for Vee-Jay ('He's Got The Whole World In His Hands' b/w 'Heartaches' (Vee-Jay catalog number 941).
Signed by Atlantic she recorded a gospel-oriented album (1967's 'Hark! the Voice' Atlantic catalog number SD-R003) and a pair of singles. Her luck seemed to change when she was picked up by Motown in 1968. Credited to Blinky, Williams made her label debut with the single 'I Wouldn't Change The Man He Is' b/w 'I'll Always Love You'. While the track did little commercially, Motown elected to give her another chance, transferring her to the Gordy subsidiary, where she was teamed with Edwin Starr. Released as a single, 'Oh How Happy' b/w 'Ooo Baby Baby' (Gordy nr 7090) provided the pair with a minor pop hit. While it peaked at # 92 pop, sales were enough for Gordy to finance a supporting album which resulted in the Frank Wilson produced Just We Two in 1969.

Edwin Starr's second album is an embarrassment of riches, soaring lyricism mated to a pounding, emphatic beat that won't let the listener go. Released in April 1969, 25 Miles was actually comprised, in part, of single sides, some going back as far as 1967, but was a more unified body of music than the preceding Soul Master LP. It embraced many of the changes that started to overtake Motown Records for the better as the 1960s came to a close, and it got a lot of what it did just right. The topical ballad "I'm Still a Struggling Man," though it didn't do that well as a single, featured one of Starr's most moving vocal performances, and in its lyric was the distant precursor to the musical/social vision that would burst forward full-force on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On -- it's still a love song, but is laced with bitter images and a social awareness that makes it all the more poignant. Aside from jewels like that, and the killer Starr original "24 Hours (To Find My Baby)," the album is also one of Starr's most rewarding vocal showcases, from the rough-hewn passion of "Backyard Lovin' Man," across the tender vulnerability of "If My Heart Could Tell the Story," to the soaring falsetto he generates on "He Who Picks a Rose"; the latter should have made great singles, as could the soaring, lushly produced "Soul City (Open Your Arms to Me)." Indeed, a good three-quarters of this LP could have been perfectly acceptable for AM airplay, so consider the album a gift in terms of accessibility and pop craftsmanship in a soul setting, as much now as then -- even the updating of "You Beat Me to the Punch," which gives it a whole new sound. Surprisingly, Norman Whitfield only produced a pair of cuts on this album, and the more startling of them is the gospel-flavored Whitfield/Barrett Strong number "Gonna Keep on Tryin' Till I Win Your Love," which is a delightful throwback to the sound of Sam Cooke; it makes a good pairing with "Pretty Little Angel," a Clarence Paul/Stevie Wonder/Mike Valvano copyright (and another lost potential single), and they flow right into "If My Heart Could Tell the Story." The whole record is a keeper, and one of the finer under-regarded albums in the late-'60s Motown library. 25 Miles was reissued in 2002 by Motown's British division in a beautifully remastered version, paired with its predecessor, Soul Master, and a trio of unanthologized singles from the mid-1960s, all on one CD.