
Album · 2008
Soul Speak
Soul Speak is an album by Michael McDonald, released in 2008 on BMG, with 14 tracks.
- 14
- Tracks
- 57 min
- Runtime
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Album · 2008
Soul Speak is an album by Michael McDonald, released in 2008 on BMG, with 14 tracks.
Not yet rated. Be the first.
14 tracks · 57 min
What's left for Michael McDonald after two albums of Motown covers? Plenty of soul standards that weren't recorded for Motown, plus several other songs that are "soulful" but not strictly soul, and that's just what he offers on Soul Speak, his 2008 sequel to his Motown sequel, 2004's Motown Two. Soul Speak shares the same basic sound and feel as the two Motown records -- it's all sleek, glassy grooves powered by pros -- and if it lacks the hint of looseness that made Two a superior record to its big brother, that's because Soul Speak isn't designed to be a party record like the Motown albums. As the covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" suggest, Soul Speak is a bit moodier and more contemplative than either of its Motown cousins, but that's a relative term: there are still plenty of sprightly, classy pop-soul grooves here, nice versions of "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" and Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" and "For Once In My Life" that keep Soul Speak moving. But where these brightly elegant grooves dominated on the Motown albums, they're used for coloring here, shading the covers of Cohen, Marley, and Van Morrison ("Into the Mystic") a…