Master at work is the best description for Hewett’s latest, his first soul album in about eight years. Clearly inspired, he pours his heart into not just every song. Try every syllable. And unlike other albums in his collection which mixed up, mid and slow tempos, he has found a way to stick primarily to blue lights in the basement balladry yet keep each song fresh and just different enough from the one previous to keep the ride magical. This is a man who proved long ago that he knows how to talk to a woman – truly massage her emotions in song - without putting off the man who is also listening (i.e. peeping game).
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Review by
A. Scott Galloway
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That means you get a little jazz, a little Marvin, a little Philly soul, a little Isleys, and – at disc’s end – an amazing “Lord’s Prayer” variation (“Our Father”) and one of his untouchable covers (John Lennon’s “Imagine” featuring Gerald Albright on sax and Billy Preston at the organ – one of his final recordings). But most of all, you get a lot of Howard…showing you he could have sung the phone book, but instead decided to serenade the black book. Fellas, get a stopwatch and count the seconds it takes for the Vicky’s Secrets to drop, ever so gently, to the floor. As of June, this is an album of the year candidate. Highlights: All 12 (co-produced by Hewett with old friend Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind & Fire- the man who, quiet as it’s kept, “discovered” Hewett back in the `70s at the Total Experience club in
Los Angeles
...but that’s another story.)
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