I Can't Stop (album) explained

I Can't Stop
Type:Studio
Artist:Al Green
Cover:algreenstop.jpg
Alt:A black-and-white photo of the artist wearing a suit and sunglasses, with alternate poses echoed behind him in orange and yellow.
Released:November 17, 2003
Recorded:March–April 2003
Studio:Royal Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Genre:Soul[1]
Length:53:11
Label:Blue Note
Producer:Willie Mitchell
Prev Title:Feels Like Christmas
Prev Year:2001
Next Title:Everything's OK
Next Year:2005

I Can't Stop is the 27th studio album by American soul singer Al Green. It was released by Blue Note Records on November 17, 2003, in the United Kingdom and on November 18 in the United States.[1] Produced by Willie Mitchell, the album was Green's first since 1995, his first for Blue Note, and his first collaboration with Mitchell since 1985's He Is the Light; it was also Green's first entirely secular recording since the 1970s.

The reunion between Green and Mitchell was highly anticipated and I Can't Stop was a commercial success, peaking at number 53 on the US Billboard 200 and number 9 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. It was Green's highest placing on both charts since his 1975 album Al Green Is Love. The album was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, while its title track also received a nod in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category.[2]

Critical reception

I Can't Stop received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, it received an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 18 reviews.[3] Mojo opined "(Green) is, if anything, singing better than ever". In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis stated "The songwriting is largely superb, which keeps the album from sounding like a clever pastiche".[4] Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, said that the album is not a sophisticated modernization or comeback to "a form he never lost", but instead shows that Green has "retained plenty of voice and the guile to know what to do with it." In a mixed review, Tom Smucker of The Village Voice felt that Green gets "tied down when production's slathered on a bit too thick".[5] Blender magazine dismissed it as "a weak echo of those gloriously clean and spacious [1970s] LPs".

In a retrospective review for the magazine, Christgau gave the album four stars and called it Green's "finest late pop album". He felt that, although Green "can no longer shade with sprightly delicacy," his singing is louder and strengthened by "two decades in the pulpit at his own Memphis church."[6]

Track listing

  1. "I Can't Stop" - 3:48
  2. "Play to Win" - 4:38
  3. "Rainin' in My Heart" - 4:45*
  4. "I've Been Waitin' on You" (Green) - 3:43
  5. "You" - 4:29
  6. "Not Tonight" - 4:25
  7. "Million to One" - 4:52
  8. "My Problem Is You" - 6:28
  9. "I'd Still Choose You" - 4:05
  10. "I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout You" (Green) - 4:04
  11. "I'd Write a Letter" (Green) - 3:53
  12. "Too Many" (Green) - 4:01

Personnel and credits

Musicians

The Royal Horns

The New Memphis Strings

Production

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cibula. Matt. December 19, 2003. Al Green: I Can't Stop. PopMatters. July 16, 2013.
  2. Web site: Al Green: Grammy History. May 24, 2022. recordingacademy.com. 23 November 2020 .
  3. Web site: I Can't Stop by Al Green . Metacritic.com . September 27, 2022.
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/nov/14/popandrock.shopping3 The Guardian: CD of the week
  5. http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-12-16/music/playing-the-audience/1 Village Voice
  6. Al Green: Back Catalogue. July 16, 2013. Christgau. Robert. Robert Christgau. May 2007. Blender. New York.
  7. Web site: Song Details: Rainin' In My Heart by Willie Nelson With Al Green . Universal Music Publishing Group . September 27, 2022.

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