Some young black singers grow up wanting to be Smokey Robinson or Marvin Gaye or Gil-Scott Heron; some young black guitar players grow up wanting to be Chuck Berry or Albert King or Jimi Hendrix. Gary Clark Jr. apparently grew up wanting to be all of them\u2014the difference being, this particular dreamer seems to have the talent needed to make all of those dreams come true.<\/p>\n
After three well-received indie releases, Clark\u2019s major-label debut Blak And Blu<\/i> opens in blistering style with \u201cAin\u2019t Messin\u2019 Around,\u201d a manifesto of sorts: \u201cI don\u2019t believe in competition \/ Ain\u2019t nobody else like me around.\u201d The fact that this bravado comes wrapped up in a song that sounds like James Brown and Al Green strapped to a cruise missile, with Lenny Kravitz on lead guitar and a fat horn section providing the rocket fuel, makes it all the sweeter. \u201cWhen My Train Pulls In\u201d follows with a stinging blues jam that\u2019s stretched out by a series of increasingly expansive, psychedelic solos that would make either Jimi (Hendrix or Page) smile.<\/p>\n
The title track finds Clark paying homage to both the great Gil Scott-Heron and Albert King, wrapping a smooth, soulful, very Marvin Gaye mid-tempo number (\u201cSomewhere we got twisted \/ How do we get lifted?\u201d) around samples from Heron\u2019s \u201cPieces Of A Man\u201d and King\u2019s \u201cAs The Years Go Passing By.\u201d This kind of thing takes big cojones to try and bigger ones to pull off, both of which Clark clearly possesses, whatever his remarkable falsetto might imply to the contrary.<\/p>\n
If you hadn\u2019t figured it out by now, Clark\u2019s range is astonishing and his knowledge of his musical forebears encyclopedic. After the steady, grinding blues \u201cBright Lights\u201d gives way to the Berry-inspired roadhouse rock of \u201cTravis County,\u201d \u201cThe Life\u201d delivers hip-hop-inflected r&b on the way to the loud, dense psychedelic funk of \u201cGlitter Ain\u2019t Gold (Jumpin\u2019 For Nothin\u2019).\u201d No, seriously\u2014and every track hits the mark, accenting the most appealing aspects of each style and executing them flawlessly in support of Clark\u2019s often-eloquent lyrics.<\/p>\n
The even bigger and more distorted psychedelic blues \u201cNumb\u201d gives way to the Smokey Robinson-inspired ballad \u201cPlease Come Home,\u201d which showcases both Clark\u2019s superb falsetto and a solo at the end that feels like it could be Hendrix before he went solo, back when he was an r&b sideman. \u201cThings Are Changin\u2019\u201d extends that Motown feel momentarily, before the homage goes from stage-whispered to shouted out loud. Covering either Hendrix\u2019s \u201cThird Stone From The Sun\u201d or Johnny Taylor\u2019s \u201cIf You Love Me Like You Say\u201d is a gutsy move, but tying the two together into an interpolating medley? There are really only two ways to come out the other end of that decision; you\u2019re either going to look like a fool or a genius. By now you should be able to guess which Clark is. The guy is so good that it isn\u2019t even surprising when the closing jam feels like it might literally set the sky on fire. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou Saved Me\u201d demonstrates Clark\u2019s gift for musical alchemy yet again, a slow jam with big, fuzzed-out guitars behind his smooth r&b croon that erupts into a psychedelic solo at the end. The album closes on a quieter note with the back-porch acoustic slide blues number \u201cNext Door Neighbor Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Clark Jr. is a rare talent in so many ways; a frontman who\u2019s exceptional on both guitar and vocals; a composer\/arranger who draws from the past to create music that\u2019s nonetheless bold and innovative; a superb soul singer who can handle blues and rock and funk and rap with equal aplomb. A genuine musical Renaissance man, Clark gives you every reason on Blak And Blu<\/i> to believe he\u2019s going to be a talent to watch for many years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9197],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-43342","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gary-clark-jr","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43342","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=43342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43342"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43342"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}