Sunday, February 14, 2010

1079 - Mojo 86. Etta James - Tell Mama (1967)



















Track Listing


1. Tell Mama
2. I'd Rather Go Blind
3. Watch Dog
4. Love Of My Man
5. I'm Gonna Take What He's Got
6. Same Rope
7. Security
8. Steal Away
9. My Mother In Law
10. Don't Lose Your Good Thing
11. It Hurts Me So Much
12. Just A Little Bit

Review

Well this is a pretty good album, but it does sound slightly outside of its time. While this is often a good thing in this case it sounds slightly behind the times, actually you could even say it sounds slightly autistic.

There are moments of brilliance here, and Etta's voice is truly great. It feels like a classical album but not an amazing album. Etta is clearly feeling these songs deeply. She puts a lot of her soul into it.

There are other particularly good moments when the album seems to be a bit more "hip", some of the guitars used throughout sound pretty great and give a little hint to the fact that rock is happening elsewhere, particularly psychedelic rock. So good, but not great.

Track Highlights


1. Watch Dog
2. Tell Mama
3. My Mother in Law
4. It Hurts Me So Much

Final Grade


7/10


Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Tell Mama was James's first album since 1963 to enter the Billboard 200 albums chart and contained her first Top 10 and 20 hits since 1964. It was also her second release for the Cadet record label.

Tell Mama:

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