CD Reviews

Al Green

Lay It Down | Blue Note

By TED DROZDOWSKI | June 3, 2008

3.5 Stars

The Reverend Green gets his sexy groove back after the three uneven releases that followed his 2003 secular comeback. Credit goes to the Roots’ ?uestlove, who keeps the beats as low, deep, and dirty as they were during Green’s early ’70s heyday on Memphis’s Hi label. It’s a little too much of a good thing, since the tempos never really break a sweat despite all the slow grinding. Yet when you hear Green coo and moan his way through the seductive lyrics of the title track or wrap his pipes around Corinne Bailey Rae’s in “Take Your Time,” that doesn’t matter. Singing gets no more graceful than Green’s hot buttered tenor, which he plies here with every micron of grace and soul he can muster. Add the Dap-King Horns (able backers of Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse) and this is more than a soul album. It’s an album with soul.

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Topics: CD Reviews , Amy Winehouse, Al Green, Corinne Bailey Rae, More

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