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From:Al Green , Blue Note Records ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#664 |
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3 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
 Equal or better than the HI label recordings, 2008-06-03
Takes you back. Listen to that organ. Wonderful, both technically and musically. Soul music like it should be.
3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
Lay It Down!, 2008-06-03
The title says it all Al Green Lays It Down. Eleven standout tracks from Legendary Soul Superstar Al Green. This is pure soul at it's finest.
3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
Just Lay Your Money Down, 2008-06-01
Just lay your money down right now and get this album! I would be surprised that anyone who already loves Al Green, classic Soul/R&B, or just good music in general, wouldn't enjoy this album a lot - even love it. I instantly loved and connected with several songs on the very first listen, and the others have grown on me to the point of loving them as well. The guest appearances are classy, and do not in the least feel corny or contrived to appeal to a younger audience. There are no new hip hop leanings for Al, as with many other seasoned artist's albums. It's just music made the way it used to be!!!!! Just get it.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
The Soulful Al Green, 2008-06-01
I've been waiting on an Al Green recording like this for many years now. When I placed cd in the player I knew immediately I had it. This is vintage Al Green at his best. I forsee a Grammy Award nomination at the end of the year and most likely a winner. This absolutely is a great body of work from an entertainer who has one of the most gifted voices in musical history. Al Green's - Lay It Down - has "Big Hit" written all over it. Al You have struck "Gold" again and maybe "Platinum". All Al Green fans old and new you must step-up and purchase this one. The following artist add a special musical spice to this record: Corinne Bailey Rae - The Dap-Kings Horns - Anthony Hamilton - John Legend - Ahmir "?ueslove" Thompson. You can't go wrong on this one. Thanks Al for giving the people what they have been longing for, for a very long time.
4 of 6 customers found the following review helpful:
Green, along with great musicians, lay down some classic soul, 2008-06-01
I guess I'm not all that surprised that not everybody loved 2003's "I Can't Stop", even though I loved it. Stylistically, "I Can't Stop"'s bluesier sometimes funkier approach along with some tracks with a surprising amount of lyrical bite (sometimes angry, other times very emotionally tearful), was not strictly classic Al Green. However, Green teaming up with Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots along with other talented musicians and singers finally does recreate that seventies magic of sound and loving lyrics perfectly with "Lay It Down".
The album stands up with his classic seventies soul hits in sound and theme. Nearly every track is romantic and sung sweetly by Green along with some quest vocalists. Corinne Bailey Rae's accompying Green on "Take Your Time" is nice but her voice is only pleasant and not very soulful. Frankly, I would rather one of the female background vocalists, Jaguar Wright or Mercedes Martinez, would have been the female vocal and Rae would have only contributed as a songwriter. It's the only very minor issue with the album, though. Anthony Hamilton is more present in the backgrounds of the title track but is not distracting in the duet "You've Got What I Need". What is most surprising about the album that unlike "I Can't Stop", it has no tracks that really stick out because the album is really tight. It does not go off on wild style tangents or sharp turns in songwriting. There are no huge surprises, but only a smooth soulful, blissful journey that is a reminder of a past when real musicians and real singers....laid it down. Green's songwriting is great but you'll notice in the liner notes that nearly every track has most of the musicacians aiding in the songwriting process, too. This album seems to be written by Thompson along with the other musicians on the album because the music is that important that every instrument is and should be acknowledged by its performer. Thompson as a drummer is a very talented performer (as his history has shown) and James Poyser on keys helps in recreating the classic great sound along with the guitar works of Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, but it is the bass by Adam Blackstone that really catches my ear on the soft, soulfilled tracks. If there is one standout track, it is the slightly funkier "I'm Wild About You" since the volume and tempo goes slightly up from the softer tracks. The album ends with another slight twist; "Standing In the Rain" is Green's short, self penned funky stomper with bursting horns and lyrics about being a hard working man. I can't point out many tracks as exceptional, yet that is actually a good thing. This is what an album really should be in that it can be listened to from beginning to end and experienced as a whole. I don't doubt that well known record lover Thompson wanted that to be the case of not having "singles" (which is sensible since, sadly, even diverse satelite radio really doesn't have a solid format that would play Al's new tracks) but in making an album that is very even and excellent throughout. If you love Al Green, you'll find no weak spots. The art form of the full album is not dead after all!
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