Search - Alexander O'Neal :: All True Man

Wrongfully Overlooked !

Armando M. Mesa | Chandler, AZ | 09/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vastly underrated here in the US but well worth it's weight in gold ! I've owned this copy on all 3 formats (vinyl,cassette,cd)...As a vinyl junkie, the tracks sound more natural and warm (not as digitized as on cd---another debate for another time). If anything, All True Man served as the apex or zenith for his other 2 previous albums...Listening to all 3 of them; they are like the O'Neal, Jam & Lewis production trilogy!Classic clean R&B funk and soul from 91...Maybe it is a late entry and did not succumb to the popular sounds of jack swing and other sub-genres of the early 90's. I would rather have this R&B type of music than anything else that did NOT age well ! Out of the first three O'Neal projects this is his polished one---minus the blockbuster hits contained on Hearsay...still good stuff. VERY good stuff !"

"Shame" this album is not better known.....

Ziontrain | London | 02/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I actually like this album better than (the better known) "Hearsay". Weirdly enough the faster songs at the beginning are just filler and in contrast, the slow songs at the end are absolutely killer, priceless material.



In particular the run from track 7 ('All True Man") to track 12 at the end "Shame") is damn near ecstasy. The oncomparable production team of Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis and Alex push each other to supreme heights. Jam/Lewis provide the musical contexts and Alex finds peerless heights of subtlety in his singing. My God: so many "hairs rising on the back of the your moments" here!



If you think soul singing is about belting and yelling, this portion of the album will come as a earning experience. It is a nothing short of a singing masterclass, wringing maximum impact while maintaining supreme control. The wannabe R&B singers and Christina Aguileras of the world should be given this album as mandatory homework to study and learn from!



At the end, Jimmy Jam provides some absolutely sick bass for an increasingly slow that he and Alex use to close out the album incredibly.



Superb handwork on this album. Simply superb. When it ends you feel like you were at a concert and you don't want to go home! Luckily modern technology gives us "repeat" and "A-B repeat", so instead of clapping for an encore, you can just make the CD keep crooning to you over and over:

"do it again, its a shame on me

shame, shame,

shame, shame,

shame, shame, shame, shhhaaaaame,

do it again, its a shame on me......."