Soul Express CD of the Month - June 2010
The Temptations: Still Here
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THE TEMPTATIONS
Still Here
US Universal Music CD, 2010
1) Still Here (Prelude)
2) Change Has Come
3) One Of A Kind Lady
4) Let Me Catch Your Diamonds
5) Hold Me
6) Warm Summer Nights
7) First Kiss
8) Shawtyismygirlooyeah
9) Still Here With Me
10) Soul Music
11) Woman
12) Listen Up
13) Going Back Home
14) Still Here (Reprise)
The last two albums by The Temptations were all-cover sets, but now the group
takes again the brave attemp to record nothing but new songs. With their track record,
it is not an easy task to record new material that would match their
classics, but I'm glad they at least try, instead of taking the easy road of
recording yet another albumful of cover tunes.
Johnny Britt of Impromp2 fame has contributed three songs
on the album, plus the opening prelude and the closing reprise. Anyone who
remembers Impromp2 performing Change Comin’ on their superb
The Definition Of Love album in 2003 knows that Johnny Britt is capable
of creating classic Norman Whitfield-type Temptations production,
so I guess Johnny Britt
was an ideal producer for the group, and my only complaint is that why didn't he
produce all the tracks!
The current line-up of the group features Bruce Williamson on lead vocals,
and he already demonstrated on the group's previous album Back to Front
that he has a rough baritone
voice not too unsimilar to Dennis Edwards. Ron Tyson continues as
the falsetto singer, being perfectly able to follow the classic style of
Eddie Kendricks tradition. The band leader Otis Williams is the only original
member, of course, and Terry Weeks and Joe Herndon complete the
current Temptations.
A couple of tracks on the album (Listen up, Change Has Come)
try to repeat the psychedelic and rocky sound
(and socially conscious lyrics) that the group was performing in the late 60s and early 70s,
and while these tracks have received positive comments elsewhere on the Web,
I have to admit that they are not my favorite cuts on the album. Personally, I have
always appreciated more of the group's early 70s period with Norman Whitfield's
more orchestrated arrangements, or their funkier style in the mid-70s (1990,
A Song for You albums), but if you like
a more aggressive and rock-inclined approach, you may appreciate the "progressive" style
that relatively unknown Alabama songwriters named James Yerby and Shaun Peznat
have produced here.
Johnny Britt has co-written and co-produced three tracks together with Otis Williams,
and these three certainly represent more of the sound I'd rather hear from the
Temptations today. One Kind of a Lady features Johnny Britt himself blowing
the trumpet and flugelhorn, following the tradition of Papa Was a Rollin'
Stone, but in a more modern, bass-driven setting. Bobby English plays
tenor and alto sax. This is excellent, Impromp2 meets Temptations sound of 2010.
Let Me Catch Your Diamonds is another personal favorite, a great melodious
mid-tempo swayer with Britt and English again colouring the background with
trumpet and saxes. The third Britt contribution, a midtempo ballad titled Hold Me
starts in a Barry White -type of monologue (by Bruce Williamson) and then continues
in a more typical Temptations vocal group style. Yet another classy track
in a faithful Temptations tradition.
However, the previously mentioned Alabama writers James Yerby and Shaun Pezant have composed and co-produced
(together with Michael Panepento) no more than eight tracks on the album, and
obviously these guys try to update the Temptations sound, even by using Auto-Tune
(Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances),
which really is a shame! Luckily, on the ballads they try to follow
a more traditional Temptations style, and the producers use Kelley O'Neal as a sax
player to colour the otherwise programmed settings. The prime track by this team
is a track entitled Soul Music, which is a colourfully sung
and sax-drenched mid-tempo tune. Not a new classic, but a nice performance anyway.
Of course, I don't even claim that this album would equal to any of the truly
classic Temptations albums, but I'm still satisfied that the group at least tries
to create new classics instead of just cover some old classics. Let's just
wish that Johnny Britt gets more tracks to produce the next time!
- Ismo Tenkanen
Soul Express
editor
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