The second album from Chicago vocal quartet The Lost Generation is an incredibly powerful exercise in classic Chicago sweet soul. It benefits immeasurably from the songwriting and production talents of Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites leader who masterminded countless indelible soul productions on the Brunswick label in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Record and The Lost Generation had scored a surprise hit in 1970 with “The Sly, the Slick and the Wicked.” In 1972, Young, Tough and Terrible, with its soundalike title track, was a transparent attempt to duplicate that song’s considerable success. The remainder of this record is imaginatively produced early-‘70s soul that's every bit as good as what bigger acts like The Chi-Lites and The Artistics were producing around the same time. Particularly remarkable are tracks like the cinematic “This Is the Lost Generation” and the rueful “You Only Get Out of Love What You Put In,” which finds lead singer Lowrell Simon affecting a lilting falsetto reminiscent of Smokey Robinson at his sweetest.