Time to Get Crazy From the Beat

It’s summertime, people. Time to find the soundtrack to the season, something that’ll get inside your head, stay there and take up residence as a welcome boarder. And make you wanna’ shake your groove thing.

Three nominations are hereby submitted for your consideration.

AL GREEN’S now three albums into his return to secular music, and the third time is for sure the charm. Willie Mitchell, Green’s old collaborator, produced two previous records. The results were, well, mediocre. Not bad, mind you, but overcooked and a bit slick. The sound was “updated” to a glossier sheen; there was an absent mojo.

His new one, LAY IT DOWN, is superb.

Through a convoluted route, Arthur “?uestlove” Thompson, drummer and leader of The Roots (a hard-edged and socially-conscious hip-hop band) came to produce, and he nails it. The sound is compressed and tamped down, so the drums, keys and horns (supplied by the sublime Dap-Kings) are organic and don’t grate on the ears. It’s both the sound of old Memphis and new street.

All praise to Mr. Thompson, whose nickname I still don’t know how to pronounce.

The Reverend (not billed as such here for the first time since the old days) is in fine voice. He and his marvelous voice have plenty of room, so he can sing conversationally, hit the high false notes and coo to his heart’s, and our ears’, content. He may have lost just a bit of elasticity, but not enough to matter a whit. He’s got plenty of company, too, and not just angelic/saucy background singers – John Legend, Anthony Hamilton and Corinne Bailey Rae join him for supportive duets that sound natural, not forced.

The songs are uniformly catchy, but not in obvious ways. They are relaxed.

They are unmistakably meant for the bedroom, but not in a Barry White kind of come-on – more sanctified. The arrangements show much innovation, too, with some songs’ introductions deliberately deflecting the usual expectations.

“Stay With Me (By the Sea)” and “No One Like You” are my current favorites, but then again every song on the album has taken, or likely will take, its place as number one in my personal jukebox.

Most excellent.

Coming out of the left-field bleachers is MY MORNING JACKET with their new CD, EVIL URGES.

Heretofore a reverb-mad, Kentucky-bred, hairy hippy conglomeration, MMJ here reinvents itself as a polymathic wonder. They began some adventurousness on their last record, “Z”, but this is a welcome surprise of the first order.

Leader Jim James channels his inner Prince on the first three songs, which have a meaty, beaty, big bounciness that’s not for the squeamish. They then settle down and get downright transcendent with the gloriously-rocking “I’m Amazed,” followed by one keeper after another.

“Thank you Too!” “Sec Walkin’,” “Two Halves,” “Librarian” and “Look at You” are spine-tingling songs that are as different from one another as they are the same.

Unexpected turns of phrase, equally surprising melodic leaps and rock-solid songcraft are the rule. The last five songs begin by rocking out, then groove to their own idiosyncratic spacey logics. It is impossible not to hear echoes of other artists’ influence, but the overall impression is of a singular originality.

I had caught some prerelease buzz on this one, but it far exceeds the hype.

For some flat-out skanky funk, look no further than New Orleans’ own STANTON MOORE and his new record, EMPHASIS! (ON PARENTHESIS).

Moore would doubtlessly cite 15 or 20 other drummers as influences, but I think it’s helpful to imagine a cross between Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and the (original) Meters’ Zigaboo Modeliste. He doesn’t so much beat the drums as pound them, and then in a most loose-wristed, polyrhythmic way.

His work with Galactic is his meal ticket, but the boy gets around. His solo work is tasty, song-focused and not overly drum-dominated.

Emphasis again features Will Bernard on guitar and Robert Walter on keyboards (mostly organ, some piano). It’s a mighty fine racket these three generate. The trick is varying the tempos and arrangements so as to keep up interest. They mostly succeed.

The opener is the ripping “(Late Night at the) Maple Leaf,” a paean to the skinny sweatbox of a nightclub. It showcases all three musician’s strengths in an energetic workout, then slides into a jump blues vamp for a shot of spice, then returns to the irresistible head. “(Proper) Gander” gets all horror-flick with its references and would have made a great theme for Martin Folse’s almost-forgotten classic “Nutria Man”.

“Wissions (of Vu)” is a James Bondian stomp with some close-to-the bridge plucking by Bernard and some incongruous but effective toy-piano plunking by Walter. “(Siftin’ Through) the African Diaspora” is a tricky push-and-pull minor masterpiece of greasy intricacy.

My absolute favorite cut though is the Meters homage “(Over) Compensatin’.” Truly a litmus test for detecting any trace of soul, the song will expose those without any. They’ll be the only ones not dancing.

Summertime in southern Louisiana and the livin’s not-so-easy. These three records will help take the edge off of dreading your next fill-up or bulletin from Nash Roberts.