B. B. King- Deuces Wild
Prologue: When it comes to a guest-driven album, I have negative feelings before I even listen to it. This is probably Rob Thomas’ fault (Santana gets the benefit of the doubt, given the 70’s and all). It’s been done really well, at least by Ray Charles. In general, I find this concept draws the listener’s attention in too many different directions. Maybe, though, I shouldn’t be judging these projects the way I judge cohesive albums. That’s easy enough for me to observe, but it leaves an interesting question. What on earth are these duet albums trying to get at?
Deuces Wild
This album’s sound quality mixes high fidelity with natural, acoustic sound. A good rhythm and blues band never really cares for the trappings of a particular era of recording style, but its still pretty hard to pull of anything blues-related with flashy production quality. Stevie Ray Vaughn managed it a few times. This album, however, is one of the best examples I can think of with regards to the blues in hi-fi. The sounds come out clear without sounding too much like arena garbage. The drums don’t have 80’s-tastic reverb, which is an accomplishment in and of itself when you think about most newer blues albums (even really good ones).
This album may lack cohesion, but that doesn’t mean it lacks stellar performances. In “If You Love Me”, Van Morrison channels more blues (and by that, I mean a lot less classic rock radio) than I have heard him channel since his earliest recordings. The Rolling Stones actually stand out as a band (and not just as Mick Jagger) in “Paying the Cost to Be the Boss”, which makes the track excel amidst the all too general sound of the backing band on most other tracks.
I expected more guitar interplay on this album, to the point it would become annoying. However, I was pleased to experience a very tasteful assortment of guitar, vocal, and other instrument/voice trade-offs throughout the album. Only the Clapton track, “Rock Me Baby”, has a traditional guitar trade-off, and its rightly reserved for this track alone. My favorite contribution, by far, was D’Angelo’s in “Ain’t Nobody Home”. Other guest appearances made me think “Oh, theres ____, that’s interesting”. D’Angelo, on the other hand, brings his presence into the song before diving into his own verse. It makes a huge difference, especially when the barrage of other guest-appearances pull this album in a few too many directions for me to simply enjoy it without having to re-adjust my frame of reference for each track.
I don’t really know what to say about “Keep it Coming”, featuring Heavy D, other than the love-making references centered around King’s guitar made me pretty uncomfortable. In all seriousness, King’s delivery of the chorus is spot-on. The rap doesn’t really mix well with the track, but that just might be my disappointment that King didn’t follow up with his promise to “try this rappin’ thing” talking.
King’s sound is absolutely centered on rightness, observing Louie Armstrong’s rule that good music is not what notes you play, but what notes you don’t. His sound is so tasteful and understated that it is the easy to take for granted. Still, you always know its him when he’s playing. It may not push any musical limits, but his playing never fails to take a song by the collar and put it in its place.
Each song has its own slight variation of style. That’s what’s so great about these gigantic, modern rhythm and blues albums. Just watch the Blues Brothers (I think I’m gonna get my hands on that soundtrack, actually) to see of what this kind of backing band is capable. This music both converges diverse talents and stays true to a deeper spirit of good music in general. I don’t really enjoy this album as a whole, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Trying to pull all of the pieces together, I just see each guest singer coming up trying to be a part of something big. Still, a good backing band, many good guests, and many good songs should a good album make. If I feel cheated out of a more meaningful album, I can still respect the idea of attempting a duet based album like this. I bet it’s pretty hard to actually pull one of these off as well as King pulled off Deuces Wild.
3 out of 5 stars.
Epilogue: Good album, very enjoyable, but I didn’t feel inspired enough to gain any good insight. This can be explained by my preference for albums over collections. Sometimes, a collection tells a pretty story itself, but I didn’t get that from Deuces Wild. I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in rhythm and blues, or anyone who enjoyed the Blues Brothers (anyone with an ounce of sanity, in other words). However, I still don’t know if there is some significant point to albums like this; maybe there isn’t supposed to be one. To really pull myself out of my super-objective music appreciation mode, I’m generally unhappy with music that doesn’t push the boundaries of style, presentation, or something at some point. On the other hand, and taking my ego back out of the equation, this album drips with talent, and it seems to accomplish what it was meant to accomplish, whatever that may have been.
Next: Battles- Mirrored
