AL GREEN: GETS NEXT TO YOU


SCORE: 86/100

Al Green is easily one of the most important artists that Southern Soul ever got - with his unique vocal tone and delightful musical style, Green brought something new to the table that no artists could recreate due to the simple uniqueness of his voice that brought his music to new heights.

Unfortunately this album does suffer from feeling its age with the sound of the mixing being quite murky, but the album itself is incredibly well done and enjoyable - it follows the main practices of soul music to bring the album to the level it is at. Soul is a tricky genre because a lot of it sounds very similar, but there's something special about Green's music that makes him one of the artists to stick out when it comes to the huge genre of soul. His vocals are sharp and unique, with his tone being something you will not find in any other singer. He is unfortunately washed out a lot by the instrumentals in a lot of the tracks, but the overall sentiment of the album remains solidly in tact.

It's a more blues-esque album with sorrowful lyrics of longing and loneliness, with Green spilling his heart out on melancholic tracks that set this album apart from the crowd. 'Tired of Being Alone' is an obvious highlight of the album - making the other tracks feel a lot less memorable in comparison. The tracks unfortunately blend together a little too much, but it doesn't dampen the album as an overall project. The tracks have enough spunk to keep the album very much afloat, and it makes for a deeply enjoyable soul project.

The album picks up even more after track four, and it keeps an incredible sense of consistency that is both refreshing and enjoyable through traditional arrangements and a classic Southern sound. There are some surprising rock & funk influences that make the album a bit more unexpected in style from time to time, and the overall composition of the album is very well done. The last few tracks of the album showed a bit of experimentation from Green, keeping it interesting and preventing the LP from going stale or growing tiresome.

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