One Of The All Time Great Singers
SoulBluesMusic | Deep South | 02/21/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Willie Clayton has one of those ethereal voices- he's one of those stand-out singers. His peers are Al Green, Otis Redding, Bobby Womack- the greats. Amazingly, he has only enjoyed steady but modest commercial success since the 60s. On his latest CD he moves closer to mainstream R & B rather than Southern Soul (retro-soul). In fact there's even a little hip-hop in the mix ("Fact, No Rumour" features rapping by his son dubbed "Young Bap" & the Ying Yang Twins joing Willie on the remix of "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). But don't let that scare you off if you don't dig rap 'cuz by far all the ingredients WC fans like are here. The first hit is "Love Mechanic", which is classic upbeat chitlin' circuit soul music. Plenty of steamy, soulful jams are here like "Whipped", Curtis Mayfield's "So In Love", the very Marvin Sease-like "I Wanna Get It On", "Take 'um Off", etc.. You also have the requisite dance tracks ("Keep Steppin'", "Monkey See, Monkey Do", "Love Zone"). Other notables are his version of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You", the gorgeous "Unconditionally" and the sentimental "My Mama Song" (destined to be a mega-hit!)."