Hello everyone,
The April issue of Mojo has a full page review of AYP (Jules must be on
week-end, if I'm the first to mention), which is rather negative. Only She's
a Healer and Goin' Home are rated good. The review, entitled "Pressure Drop"
ends with "AYP offers largely platitudes and unconvincing soul rehashes of
the Commitments variety. It's not one of his most inspired records".
A little bit hard, but generally speaking, I must say I agree with their
review, and I'm afraid for Neil that most of the English and French critics
will share this opinion. It's been one month since I first listened to this
record, and if it's pleasant enough to listen to as a background music while
you're busy doing something else, it is definitively a shallow album. The
big problems on this album being :
- Booker T and the MG's : sorry to say, but they are a great backing
band for Otis or Wilson, but not for Neil (except live in 1993) ; their
sound is too mellow, lacking passion and surprises,
- the songs : apart from She's a healer (the real surprise, what a sound
on this one) and Goin' Home (a great song, but it sounds completely out of
place here...)
- the guitar riffs : my God, he sounds like Gary Moore on several songs
(Mr Disappointment for instance)
- the voices : Neil's voice is not very well assured on a number of
songs and it doesn't always firt very well with the soul/rhythm'n'blues
background, and I must repeat (I mentionned it in my first review of AYP)
that the background vocals are very often terrible (out of tune, not
together, and plain)
This is just my opinion, shared with some friends who listened to the album
with me, and I was happily surprised to read some very good reviews from
many Rusties out there. We're jsut a family with different tastes but the
same love for Neil. But sometimes, "qui bene amat, bene castigat".
Take care everybody
Palomino Nero
