Strong Persuader by Robert Cray (Vinyl record album review)

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