Friday, January 12, 2007

Ray Charles "Genius Loves Company" - Album Review

When they decided to call Ray Charles’ final album “Genius Loves Company” you have to wonder whether they meant a genius loves the company of other genius’ or whether he simply loves the company of anyone at all. Upon listening to the album, it seems clear to me that Ray Charles certainly does not limit the company he keeps to fellow genius’, and indeed seems to harbour a certain fondness for singers who feel right at home with their lips planted firmly on his posterior. Then again, maybe that’s the price one has to pay for being somewhat of a legend. To be fair to Ray though, the choice of artists he collaborated with on this album was no doubt more the work of record companies and managers rather than his own doing. Nevertheless, the album is not only a complete disappointment to someone familiar with Ray’s work, but I imagine it would also be a let down for someone buying it solely on account of the fantastic portrayal of Charles by Jamie Foxx in the biographical movie “Ray”. This portrayal would have been a last impression more fitting to be left on the world than “Genius Loves Company” has proved to be.

Although there is nothing too bad that can be said about the album, there is certainly nothing too good that can be said either. Indeed, the whole thing just reeks of unoriginality. A group of people singing songs that have been sung too many times before. The only difference this time is that Ray Charles is one of them.

The album begins promisingly, with a beautiful little number featuring Norah Jones. In fact, “Here We Go Again” is undoubtedly one of the highlights of ‘Genius Loves Company’. It moves swiftly into the more upbeat “Sweet Potato Pie” with James Taylor and, as a big Taylor fan, I enjoyed this track immensely. “You Don’t Know Me” is up next, and while Diana Krall and Ray Charles do a pretty good version, it just doesn’t live up to the mind-blowing recording by Eva Cassidy and Chuck Brown. For that reason alone, I found this track almost painful to listen to at first. It did grow on me eventually, but I still think it’s nothing on the Chuck Brown version. The rest of the album is made up of songs that the public should be sick of by now, but evidently are not. “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, “Fever”, “It Was A Very Good Year” and “Over The Rainbow” all contribute to lining the album with its many layers of startling predictability.

“Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” is one of the few gems of the album and is strategically placed midway. A sort of half way house within which to take refuge from the tediousness surrounding you. Ray Charles sounds right at home here, probably because it’s a song which originally featured on his own work many years ago. “Sinner’s Prayer”, another old hit of Ray’s, recorded with B.B. King, is a bluesy track which you feel is rightly more about the music than the career prospects. While Gladys Knight’s collaboration with Ray on “Heaven Help Us All” was enjoyable, it really is Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” that ends the album on a good note, no pun intended.

All in all, the album is more of a keepsake than a work of musical genius. There is nothing new, there is nothing original, and there is nothing to encourage you to put the record on repeat and keep it there. Like the final work of so many artists, this album was bought by the public and showered with awards by the industry for the simple fact that it is Ray Charles’ final record. What its success would be like if he were still alive is debatable, but in the words of a good friend of mine, the record as it stands sounds like too many people telling Ray Charles that he’s great.

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