November 12, 1998
When people find Jesus, all they want to do is tell you about it. I understand the impulse to share something you find fulfilling - that's why I write this column, after all. But strangely, when musicians direct their souls toward heaven, their music often goes straight to hell. Van Morrison got preachy and lost his audience and his fertile R&B roots; Cat Stevens found Islam and was never heard from again; anyone remember Dylan's brief conversion to Christianity and the slick proselytizing that followed?
Maybe it's that Aretha came from the church first. Maybe it's because gospel was always three-fourths of her soul music anyway. Maybe it's because she's got a mezzo-soprano that could out-blow Gabriel's horn, but her double album of pure Baptist gospel is a stunning achievement, arguably her finest moment.
Her astonishing voice anoints standards like "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" and "Precious Lord", lights a holy fire under secular hymns like "How I Got Over", and stretches "Amazing Grace" into a long moan of tense emotion. Recorded in a chapel with a full band and choir in front of a wildly enthusiastic congregation, songs like "Old Landmark" rock like Booker T and the MG's at their hottest, and will get you off your pew and speaking in tongues. If church were like this all the time, I'd never miss a sermon. Memo to the Pope: put more funky basslines in the Psalms.
This album shows where soul got its name and its power. Spiritually sincere and moving beyond compare, if this baptism of sound doesn't get your blood moving, you need last rites. For Christ's sake, get into the Church of Aretha - she'll make you a believer.
- Jared O'Connor
How sweet the sound