Don't Look Back

AL GREEN: "Don't Look Back" (RCA)

In my personal pantheon of great Soul men Al Green has few peers. Naturally one would have to be a complete imbecile to remain immune to the towering talent of Otis Redding, James Carr, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson or any member of the Tops or Temps, but the sensual abandon of Green's Hi recordings during the 70s remain a landmark of lust and longing. In conjunction with producer Willie Mitchell, Green developed a trademark style whereby his voice floated untethered over subdued horns, strings and simple but emphatic backbeats and it's a style which has been retained by four teams of producers on this, his first secular album since 1979's Truth And Time .<ep>

Calling a 1975 album Al Green Is Love was no idle boast. Green's voice oozes tenderness,pain and delirious pleasure. He's an outstandingly gifted singer but an even more accomplished vocalist, and it's only when you hear how he approaches this album that the difference between people who have good voices and people who know how to sing songs becomes abundantly clear. <ep>

David Steele and Andy Cox of Fine Young Cannibals carry the bulk of the production weight and from the opening notes of ' Best Love' it's apparent that they weren't about to mess with one of the voices by tampering with the context in which it achieved its greatest triumphs, the Memphis Horns coming in immediately on a typically Mitchell-esque intro while Green intones four sets of ' Do-do-do-do's and we're immediately off on an hour-long masterclass of sultry Soul. Arthur Baker takes over the reins for the following ' Love Is A Beautiful Thing' without any noticeable change in texture and this seamlessness continues into 'Waiting On You' and ' What Does It Take', the album's killer track, where a thrilling and masterfully constructed performance from The Memphis Horns complements another wonderful vocal on a song which is a natural successor to 'Let's Get Married'.<ep>

To describe Don't Look Back as a sexy record would be a gross under-statement and in the beast-with-two-backs stakes I'd rate it as the perfect soundtrack for a wine-fuelled fumble around the parade ring. Hell, Green is so charged here that when he laughs his way through an intro - 'Keep On Pushing Love' - it sounds like a joyous come-on and he even survives a duet with Curtis Stigers on the title track. The songs echo his past perfectly but really they're merely a series of blank canvases waiting for Green to turn them into priceless masterpieces, which he does without fail. <ep>

• George Byrne