Music for Grownups Reviews: My Morning Jacket, Solomon Burke
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-06-10
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City.
My Morning Jacket
"Evil Urges"
ATO
Classic rock apparently lives, loud and proud, in Louisville, Kentucky. While an entrancing guitar squall has always been this quintet's stock in trade, they add falsetto R&B vocals ("Evil Urges"), disco beats "("Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2") and strings to their fifth crank-it-up album. You can easily ignore most of songwriter-guitarist Jim Jameson's choppy ruminations on moral ambiguity (such as, "evil urges baby – they be part of the human way"). But "Two Halves" delivers a fairly poignant comment on female body image ("Well when you're so young you wanna be older/ And when you're older you want the body you have now"). Besides, any band that rocks this hard can get away with much worse.
Solomon Burke
"Like a Fire"
Shout! Factory
Former Philadelphia preacher Solomon Burke never lost touch with his gospel background even after becoming one of the country's finest soul singers. Each track on this resonant gent's latest album is a carefully constructed set piece illuminating another facet of the entertainer's considerable power and taste. Eric Clapton wrote the title track, which wonders whether youthful passion can be recaptured, but most of this back-to-basics album is devoted to younger songwriters such as Keb' Mo', Jesse Harris, and Ben Harper. Burke shifts gears from deep soul to country crooning effortlessly, and this comfortable, even reassuring album concludes with the Doris Day hit, "If I Gave My Heart to You."
"Evil Urges"
ATO
Classic rock apparently lives, loud and proud, in Louisville, Kentucky. While an entrancing guitar squall has always been this quintet's stock in trade, they add falsetto R&B vocals ("Evil Urges"), disco beats "("Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2") and strings to their fifth crank-it-up album. You can easily ignore most of songwriter-guitarist Jim Jameson's choppy ruminations on moral ambiguity (such as, "evil urges baby – they be part of the human way"). But "Two Halves" delivers a fairly poignant comment on female body image ("Well when you're so young you wanna be older/ And when you're older you want the body you have now"). Besides, any band that rocks this hard can get away with much worse.
Solomon Burke
"Like a Fire"
Shout! Factory
Former Philadelphia preacher Solomon Burke never lost touch with his gospel background even after becoming one of the country's finest soul singers. Each track on this resonant gent's latest album is a carefully constructed set piece illuminating another facet of the entertainer's considerable power and taste. Eric Clapton wrote the title track, which wonders whether youthful passion can be recaptured, but most of this back-to-basics album is devoted to younger songwriters such as Keb' Mo', Jesse Harris, and Ben Harper. Burke shifts gears from deep soul to country crooning effortlessly, and this comfortable, even reassuring album concludes with the Doris Day hit, "If I Gave My Heart to You."
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