Chris Farlowe
's debut LP for
Immediate Records
actually offers one a lot to think about and even more to enjoy, while pondering how this white Englishman could pour forth such convincing gutbucket
soul
. One of the finest
albums to come out of England (or anywhere else) that year,
14 Things to Think About
, was spawned by
Farlowe
's successful U.K. charting -- albeit at a low level -- with his version of
Mick Jagger
and
Keith Richards
'
"Think."
The latter opens the LP about as strongly as any record issued in England that year, the horns and the beat and
all giving us a very vivid idea of how
Otis Redding
might've handled the song in Memphis. The other material here is a decidedly mixed bag, ranging from the
Kander & Ebb
"My Colouring Book,"
Ira
George Gershwin
's
"Summertime,"
and the
Bacharach/David
"I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself"
to
Bob Dylan
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue"
-- every track here is worth hearing, though the
number comes close to not working; and on the
Bacharach
Dylan
songs, and
"Lipstick Traces,"
"Don't Play That Song,"
"Looking for You,"
"Why Don't You Change Your Ways,"
"My Girl Josephine,"
it's very easy to forget that one is listening to a white vocalist working out of England. It was to be
's most consistent and -- apart from a cover of
the Beatles
"Yesterday"
-- his most exciting album, and his purest
album. ~ Bruce Eder