1. Walk On By
2. Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
3. One Woman
4. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
****1/2
I was kind of dreading this album. There are a few reasons for this. One is that funky, string-drenched make out music has kind of a bad rap these days, and I can't pretend I'm not effected by popular opinion. Another, more personal, reason is that the Dionne Warwick version of "Walk On By" is one of my absolute favourite songs. Like, if they stranded me on a desert island with an old 500 mb iRiver I would have that song on it. It's a masterpiece of construction - concise, complex and perfectly played, with one of the greatest singers of all time delivering one of the greatest lyrics of all time. So the existence of a twelve minute make out music version by the guy who played Chef in South Park concerned me.
Of course, I needn't have worried. Isaac Hayes wrote the theme from Shaft, for God's sake. He knows what he's doing. His version of "Walk On By" is a classic from the moment it starts. From the immortal string part that opens it, through the stinging guitars and complex Hammond organ parts, it carries over the Bar-Kays' rock solid rhythm section to a devastating climax that basically bludgeons you with soul awesomeness for several minutes. And of course Isaac Hayes' vocals are an easy target, but that's just because his deep, declamatory and ultra sexy approach came to define a genre, and so what must have been astounding and revolutionary 55 years ago might seem a little cliché now. Just get yourself in the right headspace, and you'll appreciate what a brilliant song this is. I mean, Portishead built a career out of ripping it off. And like Dummy, you could put it on at a dinner party, cry to it post break-up, or, of course, fuck to it.
The fucking part is heightened by the way the song slams into the Meters-esque funk epic "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" (thank heavens for copy and paste). Where the preceding track is loose and ambiguous and multi-purpose, this is a straight-up sexy work out and totally awesome. I can only assume the plan for side one of this album was to put it on, get your desired to appreciate what a sensitive, deep and soulful character you are, and then proceed to screw their brains out. And fair enough. People have made worse albums for far worse reasons. Anyway, side one of this album kicks arse.
Side two also kicks arse, but in a different way. "One Woman" isn't a bad song, but it's a merely good song amongst three brilliant ones. It's pretty and soulful but largely moves away from the make out style of side one. It's also relatively short. Still, it provides an effective segue into what might be the best song on the album, the truly heart-breaking "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Now, I have never heard the original, so don't ask me to compare and contrast. But the approach of this song is some next level shit. Over a two-note bass groove and a subtle organ vamp, Hayes spends nine or ten minutes laying out the back story for the song, a deeply relatable story about a man who falls for exactly the wrong kind of woman. Credit to Hayes, he manages to be chiding without ever veering into misogyny. A poor guy falls head over heels for a philandering gold digger, works his arse off to give her everything she wants, and (as Hayes says), she mistakes love and kindness for foolishness and weakness. The guy tries and tries to leave, finally manages to break away, and then the actual song kicks in. It's incredible. If I ever have kids, no matter what sex or gender they are I'm making them listen to this song the minute they hit puberty. Of course, I also plan (in the unlikely event I do have children) to make them watch Requiem for a Dream. So I don't know, maybe don't take my parenting advice.
The sound of this album is a brilliant consolidation of all the different trends in soul and pop over the past ten years, reworked and given room to breathe by extending the songs to near-absurd lengths, There's an almost classical complexity to some of the music, but it remains earthy and soulful throughout. It's classy as fuck, but also fucking funky. It's one of those albums that cast a long shadow over the decade to come. And just look at that cover! The title may be terrible considering the music contained within, but Hayes looks like the coolest motherfucker on the planet. It's not really surprising that between this and the Shaft sountrack, Hayes would wind-up elevated from behind-the-scenes to pop superstardom in the course on a couple of years. Let's just overlook the whole Scientology thing, and that unfortunate episode of South Park about screwing underage boys. If you take this music for what it is, this is easily one of the coolest and sexiest albums I've ever heard.