Check out the New York Times' prominent 2013 holiday-roundup review of Cooler Than Ice in the box-set round up here. Buy it here for $110 including shipping worldwide.
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times:
‘COOLER THAN ICE: ARCTIC RECORDS AND THE RISE OF PHILLY SOUL’ The talent pool for the independent Philadelphia soul label Arctic Records in the 1960s included Kenny Gamble, Daryl Hall, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and Barbara Mason, whose 1965 “Yes, I’m Ready” was the label’s big pop hit. Arctic didn’t have many of those, but a majority of the singles it released — presented in numerical order in this boxed set, most with both A and B sides — have craftsmanship and spirit. Arctic’s producers and songwriters were very clearly looking toward Motown or, far less often, to Stax.
But their knockoffs were spiffy — not just the perpetually devoted Ms. Mason, but more obscure figures like Dee Dee Barnes, Kenny Hamber and a high-octane gospel singer, Mary De Loach . And in songs from Mr. Gamble and Honey & the Bees, there are harbingers of the close-harmony Philly soul of the 1970s. (Jamie/Guyden, six CDs, six 45-r.p.m. singles, $149.98.)
