Daryl Hall, ‘BeforeAfter.’

The songs of Hall and Oates permeated both the AM and FM airwaves in the later 1970s and much of the ’80s, with 29 Top-40 singles (six of them going to No. 1). These were slick songs, most of them mid-tempo earworms that mixed Philly soul with rock and straight-up pop. Collectively, they helped define a musical era.

Daryl Hall’s solo work, on the other hand, has often been more adventurous, and often less commercial, than his platinum work with John Oates. The new retrospective, BeforeAfter, includes songs from Hall’s five solo albums, released between 1980 and 2011, as well as several songs recorded live as part of the long-running monthly “Live From Daryl’s House” internet performance series.

While some of Hall’s solo studio album work is an aural extension of his work with Oates – “Foolish Pride” and “Can’t Stop Dreaming” are examples of that included here – other songs veer in different directions. Perhaps the best example of that is “Dreamtime,” from Hall’s second solo album, 1986’s Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine. It’s a glorious piece of pop music that combines key elements of “This Old Heart of Mine,” “Penny Lane” and the best moments of Electric Light Orchestra. Shining a new light on this lost could-have-been classic – which did get a brief run on the radio – may be BeforeAfter’s greatest service to humanity.

Much of the rest of BeforeAfter serves to remind us that Daryl Hall is a far more versatile musician and writer than the Top-40 Hall and Oates body of work might suggest. Hall’s first solo album, Sacred Songs, was produced by King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp. “Babs and Babs,” from that 1980 record, could have been on a Hall and Oates album, if not for the spacey passages in the middle and the end that sound lifted from a latter-day King Crimson song. 

“Sacred Songs,” the song, with its “Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu”-like piano track, also won’t be confused with any Hall and Oates number. So, too, for “Survive,” with Fripp-style electronic touches in the service of a strident pop song. And “Eyes for You (Ain’t No Doubt About It)” is like a Hall and Oates song that takes a side trip into the trippy ether, perhaps his best shot at a slow-dance burner.

Eight of BeforeAfter’s 30 songs are “Live From Daryl’s House” performances. This series started out in 2007 as just that – music made by Hall and other players from his home, for posting on the internet. Later, in 2014, the setting changed to a club, Daryl’s House Club, outside of New York City. A long list of well-known rock musicians, from Joe Walsh to Cheap Trick to the O’Jays and Rob Thomas, has joined Hall on these dates over the years, in both acoustic and electric performances.

Among these live tracks are covers of well-known songs like “Our Day Will Come” and “Neither One of Us,” which both get straight-ahead “Unplugged”-type treatments highlighting Hall’s tender side. He and a full band do one of his own solo songs, “Laughing Down Crying,” that approximates the 2011 solo album version. Hall also welcomes guests Todd Rundgren and Dave Stewart in for “Daryl’s House” runs through “Can We Still Be Friends” and “Here Comes The Rain Again,” respectively. On the former, Rundgren and Hall switch off verses on a faithful version, and it isn’t always easy to tell who’s singing. Hall and Stewart turn in an introspective piano and acoustic guitar number, less jaunty than the Eurythmics’ synth-orchestrated original.

BeforeAfter showcases not only the sometimes moodier, more atmospheric side of his solo album work, but also the warmer approach of much of his “Daryl’s House” work. They’re both different aspects of Daryl Hall’s work that didn’t usually get radio play, and most of it is well worth hearing.