213. Isaac Hayes - Shaft (1971)



















Track Listing

1. Shaft
2. Bumpy's Lament
3. Walk From Regio's
4. Ellie's Love Theme
5. Shaft's Cab Ride
6. Cafe Regio's
7. Early Sunday Morning
8. Be Yourself
9. Friend's Place
10. Soulsville
11. No Name Bar
12. Bumpy's Blues
13. Shaft Strikes Again
14. Do Your Thing
15. End Theme

Review

This is one of the coolest albums on the list. As we had seen before Isaac Hayes has a particular talent for mood music, and in here he takes mood almost to the point of caricature. In the end this is great, but can become a bit tiring after a while.

Let me just say I had this on last night during Valentine's Day and it worked nicely. So if you have a lady who has a sense of humour this is the album to use. Of course you will giggle once in a while but that is the point.

This is both its highest and lowest point. The album works perfectly because it is background music, and that is how it worked in the film, but at times it can become quite boring if you are actively trying to listen to it. The songs which bear closer listening to are the three vocal tracks, the third of which is a respectable 20 minutes long. And that is another thing, it is also a pretty long album, about 70 minutes, so there is a bit of filler here, but it works as sultry background music perfectly. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Shaft
2. Do Your Thing
3. Soulsville
4. Cafe Reggio's

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

Take a page from Isaac's Book:

"If you really want to know about the mind, the spirit and life itself, read Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought. It will put you on the right path!"

Or not...

Nothing makes the ladies gag for it, like a guy discoursing on the evils of Xenu! Scientology: Geekdom taken to the level of Religion... hot!

That's proper bling, that is: