CD Reviews

*** Al Green Testify: Best of the A&M Years (A&M Records)

Ask for soul music and there is Al Green. Ask for music for the soul and there is Rev. Al Green.

The ordained pastor and nine-time Grammy winner has created another compilation that uplifts the heart. Titled Testify – The Best of the A&M Years, Green delivers another sermon. Most famous for his 1972 song “Let’s Stay Together,” Green has maintained his position in soul, R&B, pop and gospel for more than four decades.

Through these years, Green has moved from label to label. His A&M tenure lasted during the ’70s and ’80s, proving to be a time of success in combining the word of God and R&B chart popularity. Perfect examples are “Mighty Clouds Of Joy” and “As Long As We’re Together.” The latter was Green’s first top-20 R&B single in over a decade, and it moves souls and moves bodies. The reassuring “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” has been sampled and remade multiple times, further evidencing his dominance and standing as a model in the music industry.

The album also includes Green’s 1988 hit duet with Annie Lennox, “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.” It proves his crossover appeal and the universality of his music. Any VH1 viewer would have seen and heard Green’s “You’ve Got A Friend.”

Still kicking and preaching today, Al Green has been a source of inspiration and fun for many. Hearing any of the choruses in his songs compels one to sing along. Heartbreak is turned up into smiles, grief resolves to comfort and Al makes it all happen.

—Chun-Wei Yi

*1/2 Billy Bob Thornton Private Radio (Lost Highway)

Creative people do not and should not limit themselves to certain mediums to express their thoughts and feelings. The problem with Billy Bob Thornton is he does not limit to whom he exposes his talents. Imagine a typical “kuntree fella’” with a vocal range of less than an octave, armed with lyrics that seem to have been stolen from a third-grade-educated, 70-year-old drunk.

Take the following example from “Smoking In Bed,” “Smoking in bed, smoking in bed /It’s bad for my body — good for my head /I like to lay around the house and smoke in my bed.” Besides the inappropriate theme of smoking, it sounds like a song found on children’s television programming, teaching kids to count numbers with their toes.

Singer/songwriters sing and write songs to bring their listeners into their world. Billy Bob’s world is a place no one needs to visit. It is not just the uncomfortable feeling Thornton produces with his foolish lyrics that turns the listener away, but that he invites listeners to a world that can not be understood.

The title Private Radio is just that: The album is filled with private jokes, silly reenactments of high and low points in his life and long spoken ramblings. In “Beauty At The Back Door,” Thornton speaks over a lone guitar for nine minutes and 39 seconds about how his father used his mother for sex and only sex. Thornton loves to hear himself talk and it seems he only records immediately after waking up, trying to emulate Barry White.

The only redeeming factor of Thornton’s work is a duet with Holly Lamar. In “Starlight Lounge,” Lamar salvages what little Thornton hasn’t ignorantly destroyed. Country star Dwight Yoakam also desperately tries to make a little good out of a lot of bad by contributing lyrics.

Throughout the entire album, Thornton seems to be desperately trying to recreate Shel Silverstein poems. The idea of intelligent silliness associated with Silverstein is completely lost on Thornton. With the pace of a book on tape, Thornton succeeds in entertaining only himself.

—Chun-Wei Yi

***1/2 Days of the New Days of the New (Outpost Recordings/ Geffen Records)

It’s been four years since Days of the New emerged onto the music scene with their self-titled debut album, possibly the best debut album of the past few years. Though popular music has since changed drastically, Travis Meeks, the undisputed leader and only continuing member, has not lost track of the musical foundations the band established with their 1997 album.

While Meeks may have stumbled slightly a couple of years ago with his overly far-reaching and eclectic second album, the “green album,” on the “red album,” he returns to his trademark sound (technically, all the albums are titled Days of the New, but for convenience they are often referred to by the color of the cover art).

Days of the New continues to be the only band, with the exception of Alice in Chains, capable of achieving the frantic energy of metal through songs propelled mainly by acoustic guitar riffs. This is clearly evident on this album. The first track, and first single, called “Hang on to This,” is a testament to this rare ability. Here, Meeks, an astounding instrumental, lyrical and vocal talent, sings about losing direction in life, forgetting lofty plans and simply surviving from day to day, while a wall of guitars moans behind him.

“Die Born” begins like a folk song, with intricate guitar picking and fragile vocal harmonies, but eventually turns to percussive strumming and banshee-like vocals. The real gem of the album is “Dirty Road.” Two minutes of strings, horns and haunting voices introduce the song, the core of which begins with two guitars and soon morphs into a seamless, rumbling rock epic with ominous kettle drums, call-and-answer vocals and thoughtful lyrics that seem to answer the wondering of “Hang on to This” with optimistic resolutions.

This album seamlessly incorporates the experimentation that was prevalent on the “green album” with the grinding hard-rock of the debut album, and because of this it is probably one of the best releases this fall, and should be an intriguing experience for anyone willing to take the chance.