In my books, Michael McDonald can’t do any wrong, as a singer.
His amazing soulful voice hit my ears with the Doobie Brothers’ hit What A
Fool Believes way back in 1979. Truth is, no other white man can sing soul
music quite like McDonald.
In recent years we’ve had Motown and Motown Two, so for a third
time in a row he’s delved into the soulful-side of things with poor results, overall.
So we’re left to think that McDonald’s songwriting juices have finally run dry
as it’s been some time since the ex-Doobie got writing seriously. As blue-eyed
soul is his forte, there seems to be a plethora of material to plunder, but how
long will frustrated fans have to wait for something new and more adventurous
I wonder?
Will there be yet another covers album in the near future, is the big worry?
Hopefully not.
Here he doesn’t go for the deliberate replication, perhaps watchful producer
Simon Climie wouldn’t allow that, though in places it’s simply unavoidable. So
despite some average renditions like the lacklustre Love T.K.O and limp
Walk On By, he redresses the problem with the Stylistics sounding Still
Not Over You, written by McDonald, Climie and Dennis Morgan with that immaculate
voice at its best.
The two Stevie Wonder songs – Living In The City and For Once In My Life
are no more than a stroll in the park. Van Morrison’s Into The Mystic is
a strange choice and doesn’t fit the concept at all, as great as song it is.
When you compare Jeff Buckley, KD Lang and Rufus Wainwright’s outstanding renditions
of Leonard Cohen’s anthem Hallelujah, McDonald sounds positively out of
his depth, surprisingly lacking any kind of passion. Back on more familiar territory,
Jackie Wilson’s Higher and Higher is a blast, but never scales the heights
of the original though it would certainly be crowd pleaser live.
Its major low points are the drab self-penned Only God Can Help Me Now and
disastrous attempt at reggae classic Redemption Song by Bob Marley. Beefed-up
opener I Knew You Were Waiting For Me (Aretha Franklin/George Michael)
promises much, but by the end it’s all become very tedious.
1. I Knew You Were Waiting For Me
2. Living For The City
3. Love T.K.O.
4. Walk On By
5. Still Not Over You (Getting Over Me)
6. For Once In My Life
7. Into The Mystic
8. Hallelujah
9. Enemy Within
10. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher
11. Only God Can Help Me Now
12. Baby Can I Change My Mind
13. Redemption Song
14. You Don’t Know Me
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
