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Monday, October 12, 2009

Albert King: Truckload Of Lovin'


ALBERT KING: TRUCKLOAD OF LOVIN' (1976)

1) Cold Women With Warm Hearts; 2) Gonna Make It Somehow; 3) Sensation, Communication Together; 4) I'm Your Mate; 5) Truck Load Of Lovin'; 6) Hold Hands With One Another; 7) Cadillac Assembly Line; 8) Nobody Wants A Loser.

The expected sequel to Albert, every bit as forgettable for the exact same reasons. Its only diffe­rence is that King is trying even harder to reinvent himself as a cheesy party-poppin' funkster, but his «funk» is becoming blander with each passing minute. The guitar, on these numbers, sounds like a limp accessory to simplistic dance rhythms and loud-as-hell female backup vocalists, all of them probably sporting huge Afros, colorful dresses, and cocaine-heavy handbags — the usual Seven­ties drill. At least, this is the picture that immediately springs to mind once you hear them go "why don't you hold hands with one another, love all your sisters and brothers" ('Hold Hands With One Another', a slightly better-than-awful disco number that might have been appropriate for KC & The Sunshine Band, but as for King, I would rather hear him doing Chopin).

As usual, «reinvention» continues to go hand in hand with the traditional style; purists will be more thoroughly pleased with the seven-minute jam on 'Sensation, Communication Together', but I think the only track on the album that even vaguely reminds of the old glories is 'Cadillac As­sembly Line', whose dark strings arrangement in the background adds at least a pinch of depth to the proceedings. Everything else is starkly lite, and gets as sure a thumbs down as I have ever witnessed. Must-avoid, unless nothing gives you a bigger boner than sterile 1970s R'n'B (and even then, I'm sure there's literally thousands of albums to take precedence).

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