In the 1960s and 1970s, Etta James was such a singer. Her most popular song is the ubiquitous love ballad “At Last,” a standard must-play at weddings. But Etta’s deep catalogue of songs stretches back to her days recording for Chicago’s famed blues label Chess Records.
Etta fused pop, rock, jazz and blues into her songs with a style similar to her idol, Billie Holiday, and Aretha Franklin. Her voice boasted the smoothness of a soul singer with the unhinged freedom of a jazz and blues singer. Although her musical presence diminished in the 1980s and 1990s as her addiction to drugs dried her voice, she never really stopped recording. Like her songs, she pressed on.
To celebrate her five-decade recording career, Etta is back with “All the Way,” an album meant to capture her life experiences. With “All the Way,” Etta, 68, interprets eleven cover songs. They’re songs she always loved and wished she had
recorded first. This is a noble concept: Etta certainly is an important singer who can give
energy to otherwise placid songs. Unfortunately, Etta’s interpretations don’t go all the way — they only make it halfway there.
At its strongest, “All the Way” showcases Etta’s deep voice crooning lonely ballads accompanied by delicate pianos and trumpet solos. Fittingly, the album opens with “All the Way,” a song most famously recorded by Frank Sinatra. The song immediately introduces us to Etta’s weathered voice: it no longer sounds as smooth as it did 30 years ago, but she still knows how to make us feel. “Who knows where the road will lead us? Only a fool would say,” Etta sings in the opening lines amid an unobtrusive piano and trumpet. Her voice sounds emotional and yet controlled, as if all her pained life experiences are trying to come out but she’s holding back.
We hear the same dynamic at work in the album’s closing track, “Calling You,” a song she originally recorded for the television series “Baghdad Cafe.” Amid light percussion, a Spanish-style guitar and trumpet, Etta quietly lets her voice become the focus of the song with all her unhinged “I”s and “aahhs” complimenting the passion of the song.
But the rest of the songs aren’t nearly as dynamic — none of them come close to the lovely aura of her classics “Tell Mama” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.” While she chooses some interesting songs to cover — from John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” — she struggles to find her voice in these songs. When John Lennon sings “Imagine” he sounds moved and sincere. But when Etta covers the song, she sounds mostly tired and bored, still trying to put her unique style on the song.
During the most awkward part of the album, Etta covers R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly,” an inspirational song ridden with clichés. This song – with one-dimensional lyrics and generic backing music – is more fit for elevator music, not an Etta James’s record.
It’s nice to hear Etta’s voice again. But hopefully next time she can go all the way with a record and remind us why we should continue listening.
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