Al Green

The black urban record buyer has inevitably turned against the rural soul style pioneered
by Stax and Atlantic records of the Sixties. They've instead chosen the pop R&B preferred
by some Motown producers and the entire Gamble-Huff-Bell Philadelphia cabal. And no
wonder: Most such listeners are less disturbed by occasional allusions to the junkie on the
corner than by the ethos of traditional R&B -- an approach that reminds many of a... More >

Green puts the finishing touch on his New Sexiness--non-macho but not long-suffering (Smokey Robinson), vague (Curtis Mayfield), button-down (Bill Withers), or wimpy (Russell Thompkins)--with "Let's Get Married," a promise of post-nuptial love and happiness that seems to presage small but engrossing orgasms stretching into an infinite future. And then, on a second side that opens with a stolen hymn to jailbait and continues through "Unchained Melody" and "My God Is Real" to a slow, sensuous eight-minute vamp tune called "Beware," he steps out. (Grade: A)