Album Review - Lou Rawls: I Can't Make It Alone (The Axelrod Years) (Uncut)

4/5
Near fatal 1958 car crash fails to prevent long term career resurrection

With a voice like childhood friend Sam Cooke’s, Lou Rawls’s career covered soul, gospel, jazz and finally Budweiser ads. But his 60’s work with DJ Shadow-endorsed producer David Axelrod is amongst his finest, a loose limbed soul captured here in all its raw glory. Interpretations of Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch” or Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” are perfect introductions to his versatile voice and sit snugly alongside the likes of Axelrod’s Grammy winning “Dead End Street”. Rawls’ laidback passion and Axelrod’s superlatively groovy production are invaluable additions to fans of both artists, as well as all of a soulful persuasion. Another immaculate collection to match Stateside’s Axelrod and Minnie Ripperton retrospectives.

Album Review - Lou Rawls: I Can't Make It Alone (The Axelrod Years) (Uncut)

Album Review: The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love (Uncut)

5/5
Legendary debut album plus stripped back demos from female pop pioneers that time nearly forgot.

When this debut album - originally released in 1969 - was first reissued on cult US indie Teenbeat complete with sleevenotes from Lambchop's Johnathon Marx, many thought it had to be an elaborate hoax. Could a Nashville girl group really be this good and remain undiscovered? Not for ever. A choir of Dusty Springfields produced by Phil Spector would struggle to be this wondrous. Like Lee & Nancy's Some Velvet Morning, The Feminine Complex, as the name suggests, deliver multilayered deceptively innocent, largely self penned psychedelic pop that swings gently from exuberant to spooky via forlorn and sentimental. Unknowingly groundbreaking and essential.

Album Review: The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love (Uncut)