As you know, I was so excited about this Al Green album last year. Today almost 12 months on I can honestly say that I play the CD daily and tracks such as "You've Got The Love I Need" really have taken on a new poignancy to me now I have an amazing love in my life! Anyway, so good is this album that the good folks at EMI are still looking at single releases from it - and to hear these wonderful, wonderful tracks popped out on UK mainstream radio is oh so refreshing and heart-warming. So, 2009 arrives and the superb "Just For Me" is lifted as a single. This was one of the first tracks I heard on here and it still blows me away now. The song is SUPERB. It is typical Al Green, but at his very early 70s best. Had one not known otherwise, one would think that this was an old Willie Mitchell production. The producers here, James Poyser and ?uestlove, have managed to encapsulate EVERYTHING good about the good Reverend and the Memphis sound and have delivered it to us in a fresh, unbastardised, 2009 version. All three gentleman prove beyond doubt that the very DNA of soul music is a timeless element and that there need not be any modern trickery, pandering or jiggery-pokery. Great soul music is - and always will be - great soul music! The flipside (can I really call it that?!) is the equally delicious and magnificent "I'm Wild About You" - a summery soul vibe of the highest order if I've ever heard one and Al Green sounds no less better today than he did back in the early 1970s. All that is missing is his male handbag!!! The fact that this CD is up for a Grammy is something else that Al and all concerned should be proud of. A worthwhile single, and I very much hope that it attains the level of success and recognition it deserves. Classic retro modern soul. So to speak!
Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe
The Vibe Scribe
