The reissue of the year is the soundtrack to one of the most compelling music documentaries ever made, about a comeback so improbable it seems like fiction. Searching for Sugar Man follows two South African fans as they solve the mystery of the Hispanic, Detroit-born singer-songwriter Rodriguez: a charismatic phantom who vanished into working-life obscurity after his quietly urgent, elegant-R&B classics, 1970’s Cold Fact and 1971’s Coming From Reality, crashed on release in the U.S. (They were Springsteen-size smashes in South Africa, though Rodriguez never saw a dime.)
The soundtrack combines the best tracks from those LPs in a greatest-hits display of Rodriguez’s supple Dylanesque voice; his fluid, lyric swing between sympathy, need and righteous candor in “Sugar Man,” “I Wonder” and “I Think of You”; and the music’s unhurried, funky delicacy. You can get the original records in full, reissued by Light in the Attic. But the Sugar Man album is a precise introduction to a gentle genius who is still here (now 70), still singing, and finally reaching the audience he always deserved.
via Best Album Reissues of 2012: Rodriguez, ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ | Rolling Stone.
SugarMan.org 
The description of Rodriguez’ music is OK , except “Dylanesque” voice. I admire Dylan and have a double CD set of his, but his voice is not as good. I didn’t buy his music because of its beauty. I bought it because of other reasons. Rodriguez has a clear, distinctive, expressive, soft, pretty, haunting voice, that Dylan doesn’t have. I think, this, along with compelling tunes and lyrics ( some beautiful and some “pithy”), is why South Africans ( of course, some rebellious lyrics) were compelled to listen all of the time and learn the lyrics. ( and me, too. and I agree with protests as I discern them in the lyrics.) And, Rodriguez penned so many different kinds of tunes. I just don’t think anyone else compares. With a lot of musicians, if you take a good look, their music all sounds a lot the same. I’m mad, that someone decided for us,years ago, that we didn’t need to hear his music, and I’m so happy about all of the awards! Congrats!
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