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| One of popular music’s most distinctive voices sings Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher And Higher), Walk On By, Love T.K.O., Into The Mystic, more. |
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| 1 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) |
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| 2 Living for the City |
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| 3 Love T.K.O. |
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| 4 Walk on By |
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| 5 Still Not Over You (Getting Over Me) |
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| 6 For Once in My Life |
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| 7 Into the Mystic |
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| 8 Hallelujah |
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| 9 Enemy Within |
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| 10 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher |
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| 11 Only God Can Help Me Now |
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| 12 Baby Can I Change My Mind |
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| 13 Redemption Song |
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| 14 You Don't Know Me |
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Album Review
What's left for Michael McDonald after two albums of Motown covers? Plenty of soul standards that weren't recorded for Motown, plus several other songs that are "soulful" but not strictly soul, and that's just what he offers on "Soul Speak", his 2008 sequel to his "Motown" sequel, 2004's "Motown Two". "Soul Speak" shares the same basic sound and feel as the two "Motown" records -- it's all sleek, glassy grooves powered by pros -- and if it lacks the hint of looseness that made "Two" a superior record to its big brother, that's because "Soul Speak" isn't designed to be a party record like the "Motown" albums. As the covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" suggest, "Soul Speak" is a bit moodier and more contemplative than either of its "Motown" cousins, but that's a relative term: there are still plenty of sprightly, classy pop-soul grooves here, nice versions of "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" and Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City" and "For Once In My Life" that keep "Soul Speak" moving. But where these brightly elegant grooves dominated on the "Motown" albums, they're used for coloring here, shading the covers of Cohen, Marley, and Van Morrison ("Into The Mystic") and three solid new originals from McDonald ("Only God Can Help Me Now," "Enemy Within," "Still Not Over You (Getting Over Me)"). Despite the soul in the title, this album recalls the warm soft rock that was his specialty in the early '80s as much as it does his recent soul, particularly because it does rely a little bit more on soft ballads (such as the excellent closer of the standard "You Don'T Know Me"), and that is not a bad thing at all. Indeed, it could be argued that of his albums of the new millennium, "Soul Speak" comes the closest to capturing the sound and feel of Michael McDonald at his peak, all without ever sounding like a conscious re-creation of that time. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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• Biography
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Other albums by: Michael McDonald |
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