ALBUM REVIEW: Al Green - Let's Stay Together

    In the previous year of 1971, Al Green began his commercial breakthrough with his third album Al Green Gets Next to You. While it wasn't a massive seller, what it did get was its fair share of critical acclaim, as well as a million-selling hit for Al Green in "Tired of Being Alone". It was all building blocks for the increasingly successful soul singer, and the following album would show Green continuing the path of his success. Let's Stay Together is, in some ways, a downgrade from the preceding album, especially in overall consistency, but it's an album that does wonders in showing the appeal of Al Green - everything that made Gets Next to You as good as it is is also on this album in some shape and form, refined every so slightly at times to create some of the most stellar soul put to vinyl at the time. Even with some disappointment, the album can more than make up for its shortcomings.

    This was, of course, the album to net Al Green his biggest and most eternal hit with the title track. Sure, "Let's Stay Together" is probably far and away the best song on the album (although the closing track "It Ain't No Fun to Me" gives it a run for its money), but more than anything the song showcases the strengths of Al Green that continue to pop up throughout this release. Green's talents as a vocalist are more than apparent on this song, and it's his abilities that probably remain the album's strongest feature. This song also demonstrates another one of the album's defining strengths in Willie Mitchell's production - it's not the most garish or bold of its kind, but it's a calculated kind of perfectionism throughout, certainly more polished than even his preceding album. It's no standard soul album by that measure, refined to a magnificent point that's all suited towards the smooth stylings of Reverend Green.

    Of course, this doesn't make all of Let's Stay Together an infallible release, although it may be such sonically with how clean it is - the simple fact is that this is a front-loader of an album, with the second half leaving far less to revisit. The first half not only has the golden title track, but the just as smooth and even more vamping "Now You're Leaving", the fiery passion of "Old Time Lovin'" and the good fun of "La-La For You", which also makes a great following track to the power of the opener. Really only the somewhat slow "What Is This Feeling" fails to make much of an impact on the first side - surely I can't be the only one who thinks that the song sounds a bit like a more soulful track from late Terry Kath-era Chicago, right? Especially with those horns, I mean come on. The second half not only begins weak with the standard "I've Never Found a Girl", but with a bizarre cover of Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?". This cover is, to be clear, not necessarily bad, but it's just a little too long for what you get - borders on Wild Life Syndrome a little, but not quite. At least the final track "It Ain't No Fun to Me" manages to make up for all of it, on account of being the second best song on the album - "Judy" ain't half bad, either, for the record.

     While it would be foolish of me to deny the smoothness of Let's Stay Together and the professionalism of its performances and production, I ultimately don't find it to be nearly as satisfying or as consistent as Al Green Gets Next to You. That isn't to say this is a bad album, as everything that was great about Al Green is still here, and arguably even refined at the album's best moments. The album's inconsistency, though, is what puts it a peg below what came before it. Still, it's a more than solid release from Green, as he entered the midst of his most creative and acclaimed period.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Let's Stay Together.