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Lay It Down | 
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| Artist: Al Green
Label: EMI
Category: Music
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £5.98
You Save: £9.01 (60%)
New (41) Used (5) from £5.49
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1518
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 48449
UPC: 094634844925
EAN: 0094634844925
ASIN: B0016A2FFG
Release Date: May 26, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - Sealed IMPORT!! -
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| Tracks:
| • | Lay It Down | | • | Just For Me | | • | You've Got The Love I Need | | • | No One Like You | | • | What More Do You Want From Me | | • | Take Your Time | | • | Too Much | | • | Stay With Me (By The Sea) | | • | All I Need | | • | I'm Wild About You | | • | Standing In The Rain |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk review
Few performers have ever been so inimitable as the Reverend Al Green, so it's no surprise that the starry young collaborators who join him on the superb Lay It Down simply let the man sing in the way he knows best, and make their own contributions fit around his. Despite the presence of such luminaries as John Legend, Anthony Hamilton and Corinne Bailey Rae and the support of co-producers James Poyser and the Roots' Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson, this is very much Green's show. But although the smart production attempts to update his classic sound, Lay It Down recognises and preserves its enduring strengths. ?uestlove's brilliant drumming perfectly recaptures the languid snap the late Al Jackson Jr. brought to Green's legendary seventies hits, Larry Gold's string arrangements are measured and minimal while crack guitarist Chalmers 'Spanky' Alford, on one of his last sessions, demonstrates precisely how to balance rhythm and detail (The album is dedicated to his memory). Songs like the elegant title track, where Green out-emotes the decades-younger Hamilton, "Take Your Time", a lovely deep soul duet with Bailey Rae, and the quietly propulsive closer "Standing In The Rain" are naggingly timeless, though there really isn't a weak track on this excellent record. Lay It Down is a gift from one generation to the man that inspired them.--Steve Jelbert
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
The Reverend Green returns & delivers a Grammy winning album! August 28, 2008
Michaelw89 (London, UK)
Known for classic soul songs soul music such as `I'm So Tired Of Being Alone' and `Let's Stay Together' amongst many, Al Green returns in 2008 with a new album, Lay It Down.
11 songs that sound they were released in 1972, yet have a 2008 sound. Also featured on this CD is Corrine Bailey Rae, Anthony Hamilton, John Legend and the impressive horn section, the Daptones, members of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
The opening track the ballad `Lay It Down' with Anthony Hamilton has all the standard Al Green trademark sound with Hamilton providing background vocals, the rest of the album follows this classic pattern with the tracks like `Too Much', `Stay With Me' which features John Legend. Green gets funky on the up-tempo tracks `You've Got The Love I Need', `I'm Wild About You' and `Standing In The Rain'. `Take Your Time' is a fine ballad with Corrine Bailey Rae as an excellent partner for Green.
Credit to the producers of this album James Poyser, Ahmir Thompson of the hip-hop band The Roots who along with Green decide to make this CD reflect Al Green's classic sound for which he is renowned. This is an excellent album.
Lay It Down
Al Green Is Love Again (Lay It Down) August 6, 2008
brentalexis (London, United Kingdon)
"Al Green Is Love" was one of his classic excellent albums released around 1975. However I think he has done it again, this time with "Lay It Down". Isn't it funny how the great artist never loose their touch. In the case of Al its that lovely falsetto voice which seems to work so well with many soulful love songs. Just listen to "Lets Stay Together", "I'm Still In Love With You" and so on.
On Lay It Down the music is fresh yet there are signs of the 70's sound which made him popular. What has been cleverly done is to maintane his own style as we have come to know it but mixed in with an excellent bass line Memphis style horns and modern artist like Corinne Bailey Rae etal. All tracks are enjoyable and there is no excuse to skip any. What this album has done in our houseold, is resurect all his oldies, but this is after we have played Lay It Down a few times.
If you are a Al Green fan like me, then this is a must for your collection. If you are new to Al Green then this will be an enjoyable start especially if you have heard of the modern artist such as Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend and Athony Hamilton who all feature in the album. So what are you waiting for, just enjoy.
 Very similar to the singer's classic 70's releases July 6, 2008
Reginald D. Garrard (Camilla, GA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As has been mentioned by others, "Lay it Down" is Al Green's latest effort to replicate the sound that kept him a mainstay on radio during the early 70's. Each of the eleven tracks, including his collaborations with the likes of Anthony Hamilton (on two tracks), Corinne Bailey Rae, and John Legend, features Green at his most soulful, backed by musicians/arrangers that truly know how to support such a legendary talent.
The album's highlight is actually one of the duets: the one with Rae, entitled "Take Your Time." The young singer's unique vocals match Green's heartfelt crooning perfectly, making one long to hear the two on some future effort.
The only complaint of the CD, resulting in the loss of a star, is that a couple of the tracks sound TOO much like each other, making them somewhat interchangeable, adding a little confusion to the listening ear.
One might ask, "Didn't I just hear that song?" as the album makes it spins on the CD player.
With that said, however, "Lay it Down" is still a welcome pleasure for fans of Green and real rhythm and blues, not the Usher/Chris Brown/Justin Timberlake type that passes for the genre today.
a real Soul album by the No 1 Soul Man June 24, 2008
Andy Edwards (Essex UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Since the first time I heard Al Green (on "Tired of Being Alone", around 1970) I have regarded him as the paramount Soul man, His partnership with Willie Mitchell in the 70's produced some of the most consistent and superb music of that or any other era, and which came to define Soul for many. Soul went out of fashion around the time Al "retired" to his Memphis church, and he has struggled to reach anything approaching those dizzy heights since his return to secular music.
He is not alone in that. Nor is it unique to hitch up with current star names. There have been many attempts by 60's and 70's artists to recreate their success, and the fact that only a few have pulled it off tells you that it takes more than an up to date who's who. What it does take is that those involved have respect - for both the artist and for the work he did, and the ability to draw on that, bring it up to date and avoid cliche. They have managed it on "Lay It Down".
Here they provide what Al Green had in the 70's - a framework where his vocal can run in and out as he pleases, where he can swoop and soar and ad lib as the mood takes him and where his voice is, at times, just another instrument. As for individual tracks, the title track has a beautiful chorus across which Al whoops and wails and "Just For Me" could have lifted the rhythm track from "Let's Stay Together" (but it didn't).
Anyway, you get the picture - this is a real Soul album, from the master of the genre, which stands comparison with Al Green's classic 70's albums - yes it is that good. All of those involved on "Lay It Down" deserve enormous credit for creating a truly superb album - if you love Soul, what are you waiting for, just buy it
Al + young guns = marriage made in soul heaven! June 5, 2008
Uncle Cobbly (Glastonbury)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is superb . It starts brilliantly and ,incredibly, the quality never dips afterwards . If you like old-school soul , you're gonna love this . I just hope he tours this extensively in the UK - it's so strong , it deserves a live outing . Proper horns , proper strings , proper soul .
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