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JEAN CARN – Jean Carn / Happy to Be with You UK Edsel / Philadelphia International Reissue CD 2 Original Albums on 1 CD Jean Carn: The original LP on US PIR 34394, 1976 Produced by Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff, Dexter Wansel, John Whitehead, Gene McFadden & Victor Carstarphen 1) Free Love 2) No Laughing Matter 3) I’m In Love Once Again 4) Don’t You Know 5) Love When You See It 6) Where Did You Ever Go 7) You Are All I Need 8) If You Wanna Go Back 9) You Got A Problem 10) Time Waits For No One Jean's debut solo album concentrated on Philly style dance tracks, and only three cuts are ballads. There's certainly nothing wrong with the uptempo dancers, they're typical Philadelphia soul with airy backings dominated by strings and rhythmically played horn riffs, but none of the tracks is of classic stature. Free Love was the first single pick, being an O'Jays type Gamble-Huff dancer with some socially conscious message and an effective rhythm arrangement, but the melody line is very simple, and the chorus gets rather repetitive. The single peaked at position 23 on Billboard Soul Chart. The follow-up single If You Wanna Go Back is virtually repeating the same formula, and the Gamble-Huff melody is again very plain, even poppish. The single flopped completely. In my book the best dance tune on the album is the closing cut Time Waits for No One, a McFadden-Whitehead-Carstarphen tune with a slightly more peaceful pace and a much more profound composition, which allows Jean to show off her strong vocalising – which is something the Gamble-Huff canterers didn't do, this time. There's also some jazzy keyboard playing at the end of the song, and the rhythm track is quite intensive. Of the three Gamble & Huff tunes, No Laughing Matter is definitely the classiest, being a relaxed and tuneful, string-coated floater on which Jean sounds rather impressive, using her lower register to good effect. Still, I found the Dexter Wansel written mid-pacer I'm in Love Again more attractive, and the beautifully soaring track is coloured by neat piano soloing, undoubtedly played by Dexter himself (but not credited in the album leaflet). There are two more Wansel tunes on the LP. Where Did You Ever Go is a very sentimental, melancholy tune saved by Jean's gritty performance. You're All I Need starts with some cinematic sound effects of a harbour and continues in a very stylish way, using woodwinds and strings to create a unique atmosphere, and Jean's expressive vocals are just perfectly suited to the setting. This was obviously one of the few tunes on the album that were tailor-made for Jean. Still, my greatest favourite is the McFadden-Whitehead-T. Life-Huff collaboration Don't You Know Love When You See It; a wonderful mid-tempo ballad, which builds the majestic background in the same way than Norman Whitfield has constructed his finest masterpieces. Thus, the backing is full nuances and intriguing details that make the track so timeless. The setting also stimulates Jean to her very best, revealing her whole register and using her voice in a deliciously colourful way. A brilliant and professional performance in every way. As a whole, the album showed two different ambitions at the same time: it was striving after commercial success with the aid of over-simplified pop melodies in Philly dance rhythms, but the LP also demonstrated that the PIR producers had realised the magnificent artistic potential of their new protegée. While the first mentioned aim was only partially materialised, the album certainly proved that a superlative new heroine had appeared to the soul scene.  Happy to Be with You: The original LP US PIR 34986, 1978 Produced by Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff, Dexter Wansel, Jack Faith, William Bloom, Douglas Brown, Thomas Wallington, Sherman Marshall 11) There’s A Shortage Of Good Men 12) Together Once Again 13) (No, No) You Can’t Come Back Now 14) Revelation - Infant Eyes 15) Happy To Be With You 16) Don’t Let It Go To Your Head 17) I Bet She Won’t Love You Like I Do 18) You Light Up My Life Jean's second solo set is very similar to her debut. Again, there are several typical Philly dancers aimed at chart success, blended with more relaxed mid-pacers and some unusual ballads. The 4-track album sides (A and B side of the vinyl LP) had an identical structure; both sides start with a rather trivial dancer, followed by relaxed mid-pacers or mid-tempo ballads, and close with jazz-oriented ballad songs. Of the dance tracks, Happy to Be with You was the first single pick from the LP, being a reasonable disco shuffler written by Ted Wortham and Sherman Marshall. The song is a cheerful catchy lilter that Jean sings vividly, but the single flopped. This makes me wonder why Gamble & Huff decided to release the much alike, but even much more simple dance tune, There's a Shortage of Good Men, as the third single pick. The backing is a bit heavier Philly rhythm track and the songs sounds like it had been left out of some O'Jays album. Another commercial flop. However, between these two singles, Gamble and Huff released a more smoothly flowing song Don't Let It Go to Your Head, and it even gained minor chart success, peaking at position 54. I quite enjoy the mellow atmosphere of the song, featuring some delicate jazzy guitar work and truly fantastic vocal exercise by Jean. This is also the track that is clearly the best-known tune from the album. The relaxed, swinging mid-tempo dancer I Bet She Won't Love You Like I Do is also quite attractive and on that track we once more find Jean using her voice in a very colourful way. The other contribution from the same team (William Bloom - Douglas Brown - Thomas Wallington) is the effortless uptempo loper (No, No) You Can't Come Back Now. McFadden & Whitehead did not participate in the production, this time, but Dexter Wansel produced three cuts on the LP. Revelation / Infant Eyes (by Doug Carn / Wayne Shorter) is a return to Jean's jazz roots, while You Light up My Life turns from a rather pompous, musical-style ballad into a jazzy swayer. The third Wansel contribution Together Once Again is a more traditional soul ballad. Dexter's own composition is not a highly memorable song, and the string-coated arrangement is not soulful at all, but Jean's delivery is quite powerful. All in all, Happy to Be with You was not a masterpiece but a rather mediocre album, lacking the absolute killer cuts or unforgettable ballads, yet some of the mid-tempo swayers included were quite enjoyable. -Ismo Tenkanen Soul Express Editor  Read the whole "Album by Album Story" of Jean Carn from our Issue 1/1998 Buy the printed issue with Jean Carne album by album story
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