ALBUM REVIEW: James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon

    James Taylor's career had rose to life at the start of the decade. Prior to his second solo album, Taylor was in a desperate situation - he was essentially homeless at the time of recording the album and had left Apple Records after one album in 1968. During recording of what would become Sweet Baby James, James was a couch-wanderer, staying at the home of anyone who would have him (including producer Peter Asher). However, fortune would eventually shine on Taylor, as Sweet Baby James was not only a successful album, but yielded a top-10 hit with "Fire and Rain." Taylor's follow-up in Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon ultimately follows along a lot of similar lines as the folky singer-songwriter of Sweet Baby James, and while it's certainly a competent successor, rarely does it have the energy or stylistic diversity to keep up with its predecessor. The end result is a good album from a good songwriter and artist, but it's hard not to see Mud Slide Slim as a bit of a disappointment.

    One of the only major strengths of Mud Slide Slim over Sweet Baby James lies with, in my humble opinion, his backing band. While the group of musicians that were by his side on THAT album were certainly sharp and made up of some great session players (Red Rhodes, John London, Danny Kootch), he has a more set-in-stone band with this album that consistently plays throughout, and they're damn good. The new addition is bassist Leland Sklar, and his punching rhythms and smooth lines add a hell of a lot texture to the songs on Mud Slide Slim. You can hear it in the more produced songs, too, as moments like the soaring opener "Love Has Brought Me Around" or the meandering nature of pseudo-title track "Mud Slide Slim" soar with an energy that could only be found on seldom Sweet Baby James moments. Other moments are just as stripped-down, such as the quick closing moment of "Isn't It Nice to Be Home Again" that is almost certainly too brief to be substantial, but is a sweet enough way to close out.

    With all the compliments I could hurl at this album, I ultimately do find it to be a weaker outing than Sweet Baby James, simply because it feels too much like a retread. Most of Mud Slide Slim is a competent record, and rarely does it really truly stumble outside of some super boring moments - see "Places in My Past," which is two minutes but feels like four. Maybe after all the success of Sweet Baby James, he felt less of an urgency to be as versatile, and while that album bounced around from blues and folk to tinges of country and was filled with creativity of moments like "Fire and Rain" and "Suite for 20 G," a whole lot of Mud Slide Slim plays on similar notes to each other. The end result is far from a bad album, but it makes for an album that is very often not as exciting as it could have been - while it may not be fair to compare it beforehand, it's hard not to think about all the inventive moments that could have existed with this.

     Taylor's follow-up to his breakout is a good album that continues where he left off, but it comes at the cost of not doing a whole lot to distinguish itself from what preceded it. While the music that flows out of the speakers is the product of an incredibly tight band of players and Taylor's craft for songwriting continuously grows, ultimately Mud Slide Slim feels underwhelming compared to the bouncing-around and variety of his previous effort. For those who really just want more Taylor, Mud Slide Slim should satiate that taste for some good tunes - after all, you have "You've Got a Friend" here - but nothing feels like a major expansion upon what's already been done. 

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.