One thing should be clear after a career that has spanned two decades and 10 albums: however hard industry types may try, Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019 is not an artist you can classify or contain within a single genre.\u00a0 Playfully and confidently mixing contemporary blues with pop, soul, funk and even the occasional country influences, Mo\u2019 can always be relied on to deliver a tasty stew of influences that\u2019s like musical comfort food, smooth here and spicy there, familiar yet playful.\u00a0 He might offer different flavors and shadings, but the character of the music is always ultimately his own\u2014philosophical, wise and upbeat, though unafraid to look at the hard questions as well.<\/p>\n
The singer-songwriter born Kevin Moore has chosen to make The Reflection<\/i> a family affair, adding to the layers of meaning contained in the album title.\u00a0 Moore produces the album himself, features wife Robbie Brooks-Moore as a background vocalist on several tracks, and turns thoughtful closer \u201cSomething Within\u201d into a virtual family reunion, with his namesake son on drums, his sister on vocals and on and on.\u00a0 All of this gives the album a loose, intimate feel that\u2019s perfect for Moore\u2019s laidback approach to a set of songs about the trials and pleasures of mid-life.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cThe Whole Enchilada\u201d is a gently grooving gospel-funk number where Mo\u2019 questions the resolve of a guy who\u2019s settled down and started a family and is now sitting there trying to figure out what happens next.\u00a0 \u201cAre you gonna be \/ Any better \/ Than the man you had to be to get her?\u201d he asks pointedly, decorating this probing vignette with tasty blues licks and a rich chorus of background vocals.<\/p>\n
\u201cInside Outside\u201d accents the funk with a steady, driving bass line and call-and-answer with the same background chorus as \u201cEnchilada,\u201d delivering a sharp message about surface versus interior integrity featuring this lyrical nugget; \u201cWhen you point one finger, three point back.\u201d \u201cAll The Way\u201d is four minutes of joyful noise, a gospel-tinged celebration of commitment.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The title track has an unexpected feel at first\u2014a lounge-jazz treatment with tinkly piano, gentle acoustic guitar, and a simple rhythm track.\u00a0 It\u2019s thoughtful and reflective (natch), but the arrangement feels off; Moore\u2019s whole appeal is that his musical persona is so earthy and real, making this ultra-smooth approach ring false, at least until the song eventually finds a little grit toward the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrush On You,\u201d featuring India.Arie, is a sweet number about revitalizing that old flame after you\u2019ve achieved \u201cThe Whole Enchilada.\u201d\u00a0 Further demonstrating his range, Moore, who co-wrote \u201cI Hope\u201d with the Dixie Chicks for their 2006 album Taking The Long Way<\/i>, teams with Vince Gill for \u201cMy Baby\u2019s Telling Lies Again,\u201d a well-crafted duet that adds Gill\u2019s keening harmony vocals to a rather familiar lyric about a woman who done them both wrong.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Still, it was all feeling a little too clean and smooth until we arrived at number nine, the devastating \u201cWe Don\u2019t Need It.\u201d As Moore\u2019s everyman narrator sits his family down to explain he\u2019s been laid off, and then absorbs their infused-with-grace responses, Moore reminds us of his gift for bringing the emotional core of a situation to the fore and laying it out in simple, powerful terms.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cJust Lookin\u2019\u201d follows with perfect contrast, a sassy, finger-snapping blues-funk with clavinet and a full horn section, about a man with a wandering eye that\u2019s getting him in trouble, and his attempts to talk his way out of it.\u00a0 The introspective \u201cWalk Through Fire\u201d offers still a third vantage point on marriage and mid-life, though more James Taylor in its approach than Robert Johnson.<\/p>\n
The one real misstep on this album falls right in the middle, at track number six.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know just what possessed Mr. Moore to remake the Eagles\u2019 \u201cOne Of These Nights\u201d as a shimmering lounge-jazz shuffle, and I do tip my hat to him for his musical courage, but this one just doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the addition of Dave Koz\u2019s soaring sax solo is intended to add a touch of sophistication, but in practice it only accentuates the smooth-jazz awkwardness of this remake.<\/p>\n
On his best albums (Just Like You<\/i>, Slow Down<\/i>, Keep It Simple<\/i>), there\u2019s an edge underlying even Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019s most straightforward, poppy songs, an emotional volatility and acerbic playfulness that\u2019s very characteristic of the blues.\u00a0 By contrast, The Reflection<\/i> is, for the most part, all smoothness and light, draining a lot of the snap and spice out of this otherwise solid song cycle.\u00a0 For a singer-songwriter, contentedness can be a double-edged sword.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7091],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42409","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-keb-mo","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42409"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42409"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}