Soul Express CD Review

This is Al Green’s first work with Willie Mitchell in around 25 years and if you are a fan of their 70s Hi collaborations then you will not be disappointed in this album. To call it a fantastic musical anachronism is an understatement! As soon as track one opens into its soulful, brassy and Southern glory we are whisked immediately back to 1972 and the classic horn-filled albums that spawned "Tired Of Being Alone", "Look What You Done To Me" and "I’m So Tired Of Being Alone". That’s pretty much the road that we travel on with this CD. As with much of Al’s classic material, I am more in tune with the uptempo material, which I believe Al does best.
His foray back into the secular world is still anointed with his passionate preacher man style of vocal delivery and the album is thus an essential piece of CLASSIC Al Green and Willie Mitchell. Songs such as "I Can’t Stop" and "Million To One" are instant Green classics and immediately can be put in the same league as his classiest 70s moments. The brassy, bluesy and jazzy "Play To Win" adds some extra spice to the overall flavour as does the string and Hammond-filled "Rainin’ In my Heart". Strings are courtesy of The New Memphis Strings, incidentally.
The ballad, "Not Tonight" is a blisteringly hot traditional Green song that proves beyond doubt that classic music such as this defies fads, fashions and boundaries. Timeless music is timeless music and this is why I deem this a fantastic anachronism – it is completely out of place in the major label fodder-filled world of teeny "RnB", Hip-Hp and Rap but the style sounds as fresh and great now as it did when it was originally recorded back in the 1970s. This song, though, could easily be recorded by artists such as David Hudson on his superb "Night & Day" set for Waylo back in 1987. A real fun stomper is "I’ve Been Thinkin’ Bout You" which is a fantastic mulch of Memphis horns, gritty blues riffs and the tambourine a-shakin’! Al really lets rip on this track and if you browse through the booklet there is a great picture of an ecstatic Al hovering over an evergrren Willie Mittchell at the controls. Boy, he LOVED making this CD. I’m a bit concerned about the radioactive car that he seems to be sat in, though!
Odd, too, that this CD is released on Blue Note Records. Isn’t this supposed to be a Jazz label? I guess the 20-something that now runs Capitol in the US simply didn’t know what to do with it and scheduled it on there for no other reason than he / she was clueless. I also note that Blue Note has lost its "The best in jazz since 1939" sub-logo too. Anything you would like to tell us, EMI? Nonetheless, a great album and many Southern Soul fans will adore this, as well as those who love real soul and plain and simple good music.
- Barry Towler