I Can't Stop

by Tim SendraThomas Wolfe may have said you can't go home again, but he was wrong. People go home again all the time. Usually when they do they find that it just isn't the same. When musicians attempt to go back home, it usually turns out to be a pale imitation at best and a disaster at worst. On his 2003 album, I Can't Stop, Al Green attempts to go back home. The album was recorded at the Hi studios with old cohort Willie Mitchell behind the boards and helping write the songs, with members of the Hi session crew providing the music (right down to the same female backup singers). I Can't Stop is certainly no disaster; it is a well-made, funky, fun record that proves two things -- the Hi sound lives and Al Green still has it ("it" being all the things that made him so great in the '70s, things like charisma, style, and that amazing voice). He whoops and hollers his way through I Can't Stop like a man committed, fully alive, and excited by the chance to get old-school funky. That joy translates to the listener; it is hard to stop smiling and bopping along as the album plays. When Green lets loose with his trademark falsetto burst, it's like the last 30 years never happened. As for the sound of the record, it is awesome to hear the Hi sound as played by the real-deal guys who built it in the first place. Expecting the record to sound exactly like a Hi record from the early '70s is unrealistic and the recording process reflects the technology of the age with a clean, well-separated sound. The drums are far too loud and processed, with the cymbals too high in the mix. Still, the combination of Green's voice and the replica Hi sound will raise goosebumps, but not throughout the whole record as some of the songs are kind of weak ("Play to Win" is a standard modern blues shuffle and "My Problem Is You" is a pretty corny Vegas-styled big-band ballad). When the songs are strong, like the thrilling album opener "I Can't Stop," the funky "You," the hard-rocking "I've Been Thinkin' Bout You," the almost perfect "Million to One," and the weepy ballad "Not Tonight" (which comes complete with classic Hi organ swoops), this record is as good as could be hoped for. Green has brought it all back home with style, class, and -- most of all -- total commitment. For that Willie Mitchell deserves a world of credit. He and Green make a perfect team; listeners can only hope they stay together.