- Jazz/Pop
- 2008
- Buy the CD
Reviewed by Michael Fortes
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Like Stewart, however, Scaggs does not take many liberties with the melody lines of these well-worn classics. Rather, he simply applies his trademark smooth soul vocals and wraps them around the tunes in his own way. In this regard, there are no surprises – if you loved the light as a feather acoustic recastings of Scaggs classics on 2005’s Fade Into Light, and kind of dug the laid back, sleepy standards of But Beautiful, then you pretty much know exactly how Scaggs is going to sing "Dindi" or "This Time the Dream’s on Me." And just like the two aforementioned albums, the arrangements here are sparse, with light percussion touches courtesy of Weather Report alumnus Alex Acuña and smooth sax lines, with occasional beds of strings – real ones. It’s a whole lot of class, in the gracefully aged way Scaggs has been approaching his records for the past decade.
In other words, his voice is so well defined that, whether he’s singing a familiar evergreen like "I’ll Remember April," or foisting an obscurity upon us, like Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli’s "Senza Fine," Boz owns the song. Not with an iron fist, though. More like a velvet glove. The glove probably could have come off for "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men" though, for while the tired little girl who’s "trying to be gay for her sad young man" should be commended for her generous attempt at open-mindedness (yes, this is a joke) for the sake of her lover, Scaggs’ straight reading (pun unapologetically intended) of the situation simply sounds sad, not to mention anachronistic.
"Sad Young Men" notwithstanding, Scaggs is continuing his latter-day resurgence with style. His voice is like buttah, and we’ll have him anytime.
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