Mellow vibe.

Hammond organ.

Rhymes "pleasure" with "treasure".

Marvin Gaye-esque harmonies.

Last track - Cruel Way to Go Down.

This is one of my favourite songs of all time.

It's got everything.

It's got "bowowowowowowooowow" wahwah guitar licks.

It's got those high, reedy, uncanny saxamaphones.

Livening up a bit.

It's got THIS!!

Sax player's going for it.

Nightjar wrote:

It's got THIS!!

THE GREATEST saxamaphone solo of all of the and every one of the times.

Gorgeous, louche, elegantly wounded outro...

Sax player's back for the climax.

Slightly jarring, upbeat "World Wide" leitmotif outro...

It is over.

It was competent enough but the songs felt very pedestrian and the vocals lacked impact. The sax player was good.

Now to look back at the thread and see what everybody else made of it.

I shall give it three stars.

It's not completely perfect.

However, it's an album I'm truly in love with.

All the best things about the various musical genres it encapsulates (a unique blend of brown and blue-eyed soul, blues, funk, rock, country, folk and roots specific to Southern US music) and the time it was recorded are aligned in a heavenly constellation of grooviness.

There are plenty of chugging, tastefully Southern funky toe-tappers, a couple of moments of perhaps lullingosity - but peppered with truly outstanding moments of deep, dark soulful genius...

Ultimately, the Man was a genius, and if he had had a more powerful singing voice, would've been more famed for his albums than as a keystone figure within the genre as a songwriter, arranger and all-round supremo.

Still, top marks from me.