by: Keith Murphy You have to hand it to blue-eyed soul survivor Michael McDonald: Once he sets his mind to something, he stays on it. After finding commercial nirvana with his Motown cover album series—2003’s Motown and 2004’s Motown Two—the former Doobie Brothers frontman and session legend has gone back to that lucrative well. But Soul Speak finds McDonald expanding his cover repertoire to a diverse range of R&B, funk, pop gospel, and even reggae standards, with erratic results. Things start shaky for the singer. McDonald’s bluesy re-working drags down the feel-good groove of Aretha Franklin and George Michael’s “I Knew You Were Waiting For Me.” And Stevie Wonder’s iconic rebuke of institutional racism, “Living For The City,” lacks urgency in his hands—he sounds trapped in a MORstyle rut. But he soon hits his stride, injecting a gutsy passion into Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By.” McDonald even does Leonard Cohen justice with a stirring version of “Hallelujah,” taking the folksy spiritual to church. Still, his overproduced take on Bob Marley’s protest classic “Redemption Song” may leave you wanting to hear McDonald ditch the covers and utilize his larger-than-life vocals on some originals. After such a long stretch, a rich voice like this deserves it’s own spotlight. imagePath = '/ui/img/icons'; echo $social->getFeedHTML(); } ?> Page printed from: http://www.vibe.com/ Return to previous page
	Published: 2008-04-22 Provider: VIBE