Title: Hot Buttered Soul
Artiste: Isaac Hayes
Genre: Soul
Familiarity: I know a few of his hits, sure
Recommended by: Micco
Expectations: Laid back and cool, brother!
1. Walk on by: Only four tracks, eh? And two I know. This will be interesting. Certainly souls up the old Dionne Warwick classic. Love the organ and the flute. Good backing vox too. Sounds like harmonica in there too. Pretty orchestral. It's interesting how a three or four minute song can be stretched to twelve. Does it seem overextended? Yeah, it does, to be fair. By the time we hit the nine-minute mark I've already had enough of it, and there are still three minutes to go! It's well arranged though and I do like the song, so it gets a Green, but it does not need to be this long, not at all.
2. Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic : Lot of good guitar in this; almost more blues than soul. What a weird title. Yes, I copy/pasted it: whaddya think I am? Piano is great here, guy really plays a blinder.
3. One woman: Lovely soul ballad, really showcases his voice, so smooth. Great backing vocals again.
4. By the time I get to Phoenix: Another song I know, and love, but extended to EIGHTEEN MINUTES! Seems excessive. Opens with an eight-minute monologue by Isaac with just gentle percussion and humming organ, sort of sets the scene for what he sees the song as being about, but it's like listening to someone introduce a song live, except this isn't live, and I think it's way too overblown. Once it gets going, almost nine minutes into the song, it's a really nice soul version of the song made famous by Glen Campbell, but it's sort of been spoiled a little by the rambling intro. Like the brass, and it's nice that the humming organ that accompanied his soliloquy continues into the singing part of the song. Very laidback and relaxed, very cool and very smooth. Mind you, at twelve minutes it's basically over (it's a very simple song, and quite short) but he drags it out for another six.
End result: For an album with only four tracks, most of them do drag on! I think I'd rather have had more and shorter tracks, as some of these are a real slog to get through. And people deride
progressive rock for pointless rambling and noodling! Well Isaac seems to have had it down pat in 1970! A great album though, just wish the songs weren't stretched out so unnecessarily.
So, Love or Hate? Still give it a
Love, sure. Baby.
