(Blue Note/EMI)

The reverend hasn’t lost his soul

Al Green, one of soul’s great singers up to the mid-‘70s, gave it all up for God and became a minister of the church, and it was only some four years ago he saw the light and returned to secular music. This is the third album to emerge from this new phase. But where he relied on the veteran Willie Mitchell, his old producer and architect of his original sound, to recapture the magic on the first two, he shares the job here with the in-vogue James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill) and The Roots’ Ahmir Thompson. At times, they team him up with new blood like Anthony Hamilton, Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend. But generally they stay pretty faithful to Green’s legacy. So this is no neo-soul remodel, just a warm reshaping of his signature smoothness, making for a sumptuous swoon and croon complete with lush strings and vibrant soul horns. The updates like Thompson’s clicking hip hop drums in Too Much are so subtle you can imagine this as just an extension of Green’s classic ‘70s sound. Which, of course, would be pointless if the voice wasn’t still there. And it is, more mature for sure, but still a heavenly thrill nonetheless.     

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BILL HOLDSWORTH

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