Happy Friday, everyone.  I hope you’ve had a happy and healthy week.  Here in Massachusetts, we’re in a very good place for the time being (and hopefully much longer than that), but other parts of the country (never mind the world) are not as fortunate.  So think of them; and if you can do something about it, do something about it.   

Let’s listen to some more finds from the first 2021 RSD: 

Al Green – Give Me More Love: The Orchestral Greatest Hits (Hi/Fat Possum) 

(Hi/Fat Possum) 

Winner of the first annual Wow And Flutter “Least Essential RSD Release.”  Al Green’s Hi recordings are legendary and essential American music, equal in stature to any of the great American vocalists.  Now, I’m not one to say a recording can NEVER be improved – look at what Giles Martin has been able to do with the Beatles remasters.  But taking Willie Mitchell’s perfect production, overlaying strings over it AND de-emphasizing the original instrumental work subverts one of the great beauties of the original recordings, which is the SPACE, or ‘holes’ that exists in those arrangements, that let Reverend Al’s delivery breathe.  To boot, a crappy paper inner sleeve is included.  It’s on pink vinyl, if you find that important.  Give Me Less. 

Donny Hathaway – Live (Atco/Rhino) 

(Atco/Rhino) 

This is a storied live album that regularly makes its way into lists of “best live albums.”  I don’t know if it makes my top 5, but it’s a wonderful, soulful set.  Hathaway, who was taken from us too soon at age 33, shows his estimable skills and beautiful voice in this VERY live set recorded at the Troubadour in Hollywood, and the Bitter End in the Village.  It sounds almost like a very, very good audience taper recorded it – you can almost smell the smoke and whiskey.  (This is not a complaint.)  Made up of mostly – well-chosen – covers and originals like his classic The Ghetto, the rapturous audience has every right to be rapturous.  John Lennon’s Jealous Guy is a highlight.  And the band COOKS, notably on the closer Voices Inside (Everything is Everything.)  Another carefully made Rhino reissue – wonderful gatefold jacket and a proper poly-lined inner sleeve.  

Toots and the Maytals – Funky Kingston (Island) 

(Island) 

Another classic, the definitive reggae album.  Yes, more than anything by any of the Wailers, or The Harder They Come.  Aside from the fancy white/blue split vinyl pressing, nothing fancy here packaging-wise (and yet another shitty paper sleeve!)  This is not remastered, but it’s a decent pressing, though nothing special.  At the end of the day though, it’s just fabulous and uplifting reggae.  If you don’t own this yet, please fix that immediately.