Photo: Al Green and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson
Photo credit: Ginny Suss

Right now I am clenching my fist and slowly pulling it into my chest, releasing a slow hissing “yesssssssss.” We all know The Rev Al Green lays it down and writes the songs that make the young girls writhe, the cats jive and love thrive, but it’s been a while. However, on May 27th Al Green will release “Lay It Down.” I couldn’t be more ready.

In the video clips, featured guest musicians Corinne Bailey Rae, John legend, Anthony Hamilton, The Dap Kings Horns Section and ?uestLove (who co-produced the album) talk of Mr. Green’s superb vocal and arrangement skills, and from the soundtrack featured in the vid, I’m taking a guess that this will be about A MILLION TIMES BETTER than that overrated Santana record with people like Rob Thomas helping him write material that sounds fresh, yet still retains its classic characteristics…

Conceived as a collaboration between the soul legend and a handful of gifted young admirers from the worlds of contemporary R&B and hip hop, the album is drawn from a series of inspired sessions that yielded the most high-spirited, funky and often lushly romantic songs of Green’s latter-day career….

Al admits, “That’s the only way I know how to work, that’s what I’ve done all my life. You just write it from here.” He taps his heart. “That’s what we do every Sunday. We never write a sermon now. If you can’t preach out of here”–tapping his chest again–”you have nothing to say anyway. It’s all from the heart, this whole album, from start to finish.”

What you just heard was my heart recreating the big bang theory. Eff yes. Check out the video clips if you’re tired of being alone.

Windows Media Player
Quicktime

Sharon Jones would’ve sounded really good flowing out of the speakers of my 1978 Cutlass Supreme, driving through Brooklyn on a muggy summer day. Unfortunately, that car’s long gone, and I’m stuck listening to her raw, soulful voice buzzing through my computer headphones, in an office. Still, it’s enough to send me on a mental vacation at the very least.

Daptones Records will release the new album from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, 100 Days, 100 Nights, on Oct. 2nd, but you can listen to “It Hurts to Be Alone” (not available on the record)here. If that whets your appetite, you can listen to a stream of 100 Days, 100 Nights at AOL’s Spinner.com.