| features in: Album Chart of 1973 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s |
Another thoroughly decent set from the 33-year-old soul singer, just that little bit rougher and tougher – therefore better – than Al Green, with high quality production from Memphis legend, Willie Mitchell, who delivers deeply soulful grooves and sharp horns as consistently as the sun sets in the east. This is O.V.’s fourth album of new music for Back Beat, and the first to be wholly conceived and executed as an album proper, rather than as a patchwork gathering of session various. There’s a slow-burning intensity to the work, which is at its best the more heart-breaking the tale – call me sick if you will. “He’s My Son (Just The Same)”, a song about a man who will take-on the child of his unfaithful wife, is so tragic you’ve got to laugh… if this was Swamp Dogg I’d be sure he was taking the piss but in the hands of O.V. he seems for real. Best of the mid-tempo groovers is “Lost In The Shuffle”, a beautifully orchestrated number that recalls the simplistic wonder of Redding’s “Fa-Fa-Fa” song and is rather magical. The funereal paced “Ghetto Child” is laced with lovely strings and a low-down organ which is downright churchly, a feeling which is nailed by O.V.’s mournful gospel moan. Right here, I get the feeling he could give it all up for “the lord” today. Thankfully, it never came to that…
The Jukebox Rebel
13–Jun–2012
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [02:40]  O.V. Wright - I’ve Been Searching (Earl Randle) Soul |
| A2 | [03:19]  O.V. Wright - Nothing Comes To A Sleeper (Earl Randle) Soul |
| A3 | [02:36]  O.V. Wright - The Only Thing That Saved Me (Darryl Carter, James Shaw) Soul |
| A4 | [02:50]  O.V. Wright - He’s My Son (Just The Same) (Donald Robey, George Hollis) Soul Ballad |
| A5 | [02:44]  O.V. Wright - You Must Believe In Yourself (Charles Jerue) Soul |
| A6 | [03:30]  O.V. Wright - Lost In The Shuffle (Earl Randle) Soul |
| B1 | [02:46]  O.V. Wright - I’d Rather Be (Blind, Crippled And Crazy) (Charles Hodges, Darryl Carter, Overton Vertis Wright) Soul |
| B2 | [04:08]  O.V. Wright - Please Forgive Me (Charles Hodges, Donald Robey, Earl Randle) Soul Ballad |
| B3 | [03:12]  O.V. Wright - Are You Going Where I’m Coming From (Donald Robey, Earl Wright) Soul |
| B4 | [03:34]  O.V. Wright - Ghetto Child (Donald Robey, Johnny Copeland) Soul Ballad |
| B5 | [03:33]  O.V. Wright - Memory Blues (Donald Robey) Soul Ballad |
| B6 | [02:46] O.V. Wright - I’m Going Home (To Live With God) (Traditional) Soul |
