If you thought Green's previous two records were sharply crafted, well you wouldn't be wrong - under the production of Willie Mitchell and the powerhouse backing group that was the Hi Rhythm Section, Al Green's signature style flourished on his previous two records, the kind of sound that you can immediately identify. On this album, the soul is more focused and somehow even more refined than its predecessor, with the Hi Rhythm Section on full display and Mitchell really pulling out the chops for an ultra smooth, clean experience. The album sticks pretty true to the soul mold throughout, although some moments definitely have more to them - the album's most played song on streaming in "Love and Happiness" is a slightly funk-leaning endeavor, albeit not quite as much as some of the material on Gets Next to You could get, and really much of the album leans more on the smooth of soul rather than the some of the grit of southern soul. That doesn't necessarily hurt the album, though, especially when we're hit with an album as consistent throughout as this one, and not just production-wise. Al Green was always a top-tier singer, seen as far back as when he was belting out "Driving Wheel" and "I'm a Ram" on the same album where he hit the smoothness of his cover of "Light My Fire". On I'm Still in Love With You, Green delivers the goods the only way he knows how, and that's by singing his heart out; from the gentle opening title track to a great rendition of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman", Green shows himself to be on top of his game from start to finish, delivering a strong performance even on the album's weaker moments, and this strength extends to the songs throughout.
Al Green was never the absolute strongest writer, but he certainly knew what he was good at, and I'm Still in Love With You is a whole lot of what Green is good at. Straight out the opening gate with the title track, we're given what feels in many ways the perfect follow-up to the hit that was "Let's Stay Together", and the result is quite possibly my favorite Al Green song - "I'm Still in Love With You" is everything great about "Let's Stay Together", but somehow polished even more into one of Green's greatest soul ballads. His falsetto at the end of the song is just fantastic, and the melody throughout is immaculate. Certainly one of Green's absolute accomplishments. "Love and Happiness" wasn't released as a single until about five years after this album, but with a groove as immediate as this song's is, you'd be hard-pressed to not immediately fall into its energy. "I'm So Glad You're Mine" is a pretty standard Al Green affair, but one that's cut as great as anything else on this record, and as a solo-penned track by Green it's more than capable. The side-opener that his rendition of "Oh, Pretty Woman" is a fantastic take on Orbison's classic rock song, and frankly I might like it more than the original - the riffing organ, tight drums, and Green's on-the-money vocals all give a new richness to this classic Orbison track. "Look What You Done for Me" is more classic Al Green through and through, and was apparently good enough to hit Number 2 on Billboard's Soul singles chart, and while it may not be Green's most fantastical number, it's certainly his formula perfected, complete with the smooth groove, vamping horns, and tight back-up singing. Some moments move a bit slowly, such as the 6-and-a-half-minute "For the Good Times" or the side-closing "Simply Beautiful", and while these both prove to be weaker moments in the tracklisting, they still manage to mostly deliver, albeit "Simply Beautiful" is in dangerously close territory to his "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" cover, which is code for "probably the album's worst track".
Even with that takeaway, I'm Still in Love With You is very much the best of what Al Green is capable of, through and through. Tightly produced, performed, and written, and containing some of Al Green's most brilliant performances yet, the one-two punch of this album right after Let's Stay Together showed the real power of Green as one of the decade's premiere soul men. Into 1973, Green would continue an almost unprecedented run of hits and solid albums, as if his beloved Greatest Hits compilation wasn't enough of an indication. It's a show of confidence, a perfecting of the formula, and just a hell of a time as Al Green gets next to us again and proves that what he's done so far was no fluke - three times is a pattern, after all. From start to finish, I'm Still in Love With You is a good, good time from the reverend of soul, and you will certainly be loving him for the good times when it's all said and done.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to I'm Still in Love With You.
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