It’s hard to criticize the work of a group that’s been around in one form or another for just about fifty-five years.

The Dells began as the El-Rays in Chicago during the latter half of the fifties. And while the music that initial line up trucked in tanked, the group used its experiences to bolster subsequent releases.

Working in every genre of popular music that a vocal group might want to since that time has emboldened the Dells as they tour today. The work that these Chicagoans continue to release can’t be thought to be of the same caliber as the stuffs issued during the sixties, but an institution is an institution. And at this point, even a flawed performance or album from the Dells’ camp is still work from a classic group.

Meeting with mixed success up through the mid sixties, though, didn’t discourage the group. Its 1965 single – “Stay in My Corner” – charted and made the group a viable touring act. Because of its keen ear for the craft of songwriting, though, the Dells would rework the succinct track and issue it in much expanded form on its 1968 album There Is.

No, the title of the album doesn’t make too much sense, but because of the forethought put into its track listing, the album broke the top thirty in the pop charts and the top twenty in the RnB charts.

What really was able to push the album beyond chart spots that the group found itself earlier – or later on for that matter – was the wide scope of popular music that it enveloped. There wasn’t anything that was straight up funk here, but those tones are hinted at around every corner.

“Wear It on Our Face” was as much a rock track as an RnB group figuring out whatever funk was in the late ‘60s. The quick pacing and assured vocals, which were backed by not just a horn section, but strings, was a perfect reflection of pop, soul, rock and funk all at once. And while the Dells were able to work out a spate of influences in this single track, each of those different sounds was aptly represented over the entire album.

Harkening back to its earlier work, “Close Your Eyes” comes off as something a group opening for Sam Cooke would have unloosed. For the simple reason that There Is pushes in any and every music it can think of, the track doesn’t wind up being a surprise when it begins – just a statement of proficiency.

Just as interesting, though, are the almost experimental flourishes that some of the Dells’ songs include. Kicking off the title track as well as “Please Don’t Change Me Now” are a series of wrong notes coming off right. It’s probably a stretch to guess that members of the Dells were able to catch Sun Ra during his tenure in the Windy City, but that’s what those intros sound most tied to.

Regardless of where it all came from, though, There Is finds the Dells crafting a classic. Cop it well…