Life, Love & the Blues

Etta James - Life, Love & the Blues

Life, Love & the Blues
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Etta James
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-06-30
Music Label: RCA Victor
Soundtracks:
  1. Born Under A Bad Sign
  2. I Want To Ta Ta You, Baby
  3. Here I Am (Come And Take Me)
  4. Running Out Of Lies
  5. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
  6. Spoonful
  7. Life, Love & The Blues
  8. Hoochie Coochie Gal
  9. Cheating In The Next Room
  10. If You Want Me To Stay
  11. The Love You Save May Be Your Own
  12. I'll Take Care Of You

Free Music Notes for Life, Love & the Blues

Free Music Review: Solid but not Spectacular
Hit: 3 Stars

There are far worse ways to spend an hour than letting Etta James wail and croon her take on the blues and R&B numbers she appropriates on "Life, Loves, & the Blues." Still, one has to concede that her takes are not really all blues or all R&B but a hybrid propelled by lots of bluesy sounding guitar riffs and plenty of horns to fill out the songs. Her band and guests musicians cook up a thick gumbo that bubble along mostly in the background.

Solid throughout but never quite spectacular, this session is largely driven by formula, for neither Ms. James nor her band take many chances with the arrangements and delivery no such chestnuts as Spoonful. A few tracks, such as the overly long reworking of Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues and Hoochie Coochie Gal, overstay their welcome.

On the other hand, Ms. James and her band sound vital and fresh on the title track, the one original number. And it's impossible not to tap along with the infectious energy of If You Want Me to Stay. Even if this recording does not win Ms. James many new fans, it should satisfy her core fans and make a few converts.

Life, Love & the Blues Poster

On Life, Love & the Blues, Etta James returns to her blues and soul repertoire, enlivening even the hoariest of tunes ("Spoonful," a gender-flopped "Hoochie Coochie Gal") with her growl. The tinges of funk underpinning "Born Under a Bad Sign" are given full room to stretch on a cover of Sly Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay," and James nearly swipes "The Love You Save May Be Your Own," one of Joe Tex's great preaching ballads, from the master. --Rickey Wright
Etta James followed her two deeply jazzy mid-'90s albums of torch songs with Love's Been Rough on Me, a flirtation with Nashville writers. On Life, Love & the Blues, she returns to her blues and soul repertoire, enlivening even the hoariest of tunes ("Spoonful," a gender-flopped "Hoochie Coochie Gal") with her growl. The tinges of funk underpinning "Born Under a Bad Sign" are given full room to stretch on a cover of Sly Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay," and James nearly swipes "The Love You Save May Be Your Own," one of Joe Tex's great preaching ballads, from the master. --Rickey Wright

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