Al Green

In rock & roll, nothing seems easier or more obvious than a good beat, but nothing is more
elusive. We may someday look back on The Belle Album as Al Green's best -- it's too soon to
know; the man has a lifetime ahead of him -- and if we do, the beat will be the reason.
Whether or not the seemingly effortless religious conviction of the songs Green has written
for this record lasts as long as he does, the beat will never wear out. "All n All" is... More >

Since 1975 Green has been making albums on which two or three real songs were supplemented by material so vague and unpredictable it almost announced itself as filler improvised in the studio--which is not to say I didn't find much of it hypnotic. Now, on a self-produced album focused around his own (frequently acoustic) guitar, the filler comes front and center with new assurance and perhaps even its own formal identity; the real songs themselves--his best in years--sound improvised in the studio. And more than ever, it all holds together around Green's agile rhythm, dynamics, and coloration and his obsession with the soul-body dualism at the heart of the genre he now rules unchallenged. (Grade: A)