The Reverend Al Green
Everything’s OK
(Blue Note/EMI – 2005)
by Matthew S. Robinson
Splashing back onto the scene as if he had never left, Soul survivor Al Green continues the groove he re-started with his long-awaited (and apparently well-titled) “I Can¹t Stop” (Blue Note). The opening title track of The Rev¹s second sophomore set is a semi-spiritual encourager that launches the album on more than a few up notes. Dipping deeper into the heart for a lushly-stringed cover of “You Are So Beautiful,” Green has the horns punch back in for the pew-appropriate “Build Me Up.”
| Listen To Perfect To Me |
The album continues this back-and-forth pacing through the slow Pickett-y Soul of “Perfect for Me” and the chugging “Nobody But You;” the heavy harping of “I Can Make Music” and the energized entreaty “Be My Baby;” the Commodore-ian driver “Magic Road” and the two-toned toe-tapper “I Wanna Hold You.” Despite the changes in tempo, each track maintains that Green stamp of approval, with arrangements and lyrics that fit as well now as they would have during Green¹s first Golden Age and that mark the continued return of one of music¹s most soul-ful and spirit-ed soldiers.
c. 2005, M. S. Robinson, ARR