Soul Express Album Review MARTI PELLOW: Moonlight Over Memphis UK DMG TV, 2006 1. Still Standing 2. Can't Stop Loving You 3. It's All About 4. Our Love 5. And I Feel 6. Let The Sun Walk You Home 7. How Much Love 8.I Don't Know Why 9. Come Back Home 10. Searching For You No, I am not joking, this is Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet fame and "Love Is All Around" and that sort of thing. All of which I liked very much, I hasten to add. Please do not overlook this album or dismiss either him or the music as it is a very soulful offering and also contains my ‘song of the moment’! I guess Einstein would soon work out what the theme of this album is, and you will not be surprised that Marti has again hooked up with the mighty Willie Mitchell to create an album that any lover of Memphis soul will appreciate. Marti believes that this album is his most personal musical statement to date and that there have been NO comprimises. Indeed Willie himself has said that as a boy Marti was a good singer but as a man his is a great singer. I certainly agree with this testament 100%. Marti makes a fantastic soul singer in the traditional blue-eyed mode, and joins other so-called pop artists Peter Cox and Will Young in an elite little group who get a lot of respect from me. I guess that if you loved the last two Blue Note albums that Al Green has made then you will love this also. The opening track is very strong indeed and I can easily see this merrily spinning around on my turntable with a Hi or Waylo label facing up. It really is that good. Marti’s vocals are dynamic, soulful, passionate and often intense. I can ask for nothing more than this. I think that this rates as one of the man’s best works. All the music, incidentally, is REAL and not synthesised. I hope that the album will do well, even if on the strength of the man’s popularity. It will also be a smack in the face to a lot of production-line tosh that relentlessly gets spewed out on a weekly basis. The sweetness continues with the strings, horns and organ in full flow over the gentler and tender "Can’t Stop Loving You". I like this although it does contain the tiniest bit of cheese, but was not expecting the SUPERB ballad "It’s All About". Wow, what a stunner this is. The opening 40 seconds killed me completely. Musically, this owes more to classic Philly a la Patti LaBelle / Dexter Wansel & Cynthia Biggs than Memphis. The beautiful strings and dreamy piano that lull us into the track are added to by some delicious french horns and full strings and grand piano. Vocally Marti is atop the melody with a rare grace and smoothness. The chorus is BIG and DRAMATIC and very much would have been a big crossover hit in the days before most record buyers had been lobotomised. This rates as highly to me as any truly great soul outing that we can put forward in 2006. Marti, my old friend, I take my hat off to you. Showing us that he as flexible as he wants to be, Marti inflects a definite Jazzy tone in the luxurious "Our Love". This is another song to cherish. My fear is that this is fat too intelligent and classy for the moronic radio stations that spew out a computerised programmed hitlist. Jazz FM should pick up on this if not Smooth FM. Willie’s Memphis expertise is hammered all over the excellent swayer ""And I Feel" and sits unashamedly in my collection. "How Much Love", "I Don’t Know Why" and "Searching For You" could easily be handled by Al Green, David Hudson or Syl Johnson. Many will be surprised how a white guy from the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow can easily be at home along the banks of the Mississippi. Yet he does. What matters is that we have a fantastic singer, an awesome talent and a whle lotta soul. Add to this Willie Mitchell and a bunch of musicians, lest to mention Mari creating what he WANTS, and the result is excellent. Please do not overlook this album. -Barry Towler Other Fresh CD Reviews Albums of the Month in 2006 Albums of the Month in 2005 Albums of the Month in 2004 Albums of the Month in 2003 Albums of the Month in 2002 Albums of the Month in 2001 Albums of the Month in 2000 Albums of the Month in 1999 Albums of the Month in 1998 Albums of the Month in 1997 |