Originally Posted by
sansradio
Okay, just finished listening. Here goes:
This set is, as expected, only for the die-hard Arethacologist. Many of the originals already had sublime orchestration; the Phil rarely adds anything fresh. An integral ingredient in the brilliance of the originals is the almighty groove of those Muscle Shoals musicians, particularly Aretha’s low-down churchy piano...what little is left of the funk is stripped away, if present at all. The background vocals by Patti Austin, Ledisi and company are faithful to the original arrangements, save for an ill-considered re-arrangement of “Angel”; the sparse power of Aretha and piano from the original is given a busy accompaniment by the backups, which detracts from the quiet fire of the ‘73 version. [[One surprise was an alternate take of “Angel”’s spoken intro.) This feels like a blatant cash-in for the AARP set. Flashes of brilliance...but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s something akin to adding filigree to the Sistine Chapel.
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