Record basics
- Album name: Strong Persuader
- Artist name: Robert Cray
- Year: 1986
- Number of discs: one
- Label: Hightone Records
- Collection: Essex
- Distinguishing characteristics: several price stickers on the album
- Buy it on Amazon: $32.09
My review
Level of familiarity before listening
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Robert Cray before.
What I expected
Jazz or blues.
What it was actually like
This was a pretty unusual record – mostly soft rock or easy listening garbage, with some jazz, except with a few solid blues songs, and almost every song had a really outstanding electric blues guitar solo.
When I think of electric blues, though, there’s a certain energy to it, and it will often sound raw and powerful, with a ton of emotion in the guitars, and nothing on this record was like that at all: it was weirdly over-produced and largely lacking in excitement of any kind.
Also, it sounded to me like the percussion came from a drum machine, though drums were credited to a David Olson.
Right Next Door (Because of Me) stood out as being easy listening crap, bizarrely juxtaposing a strong guitar solo with background music that sounded like the lobby of a dentist’s office.
The two best songs, I Wonder and New Blood, were the two most archetypally blues songs. The guitar parts on both were great, and I especially liked how the former led with its guitar solo.
Grade
2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing
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