Chris Farlowe's debut LP for
Immediate Records actually offers one a lot to think about and even more to enjoy, while pondering how this white Englishman could pour forth such convincing gutbucket
soul. One of the finest
soul albums to come out of England (or anywhere else) that year,
14 Things to Think About, was spawned by
Farlowe's successful U.K. charting -- albeit at a low level -- with his version of
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards'
"Think." The latter opens the LP about as strongly as any record issued in England that year, the horns and the beat and
Farlowe all giving us a very vivid idea of how
Otis Redding might've handled the song in Memphis. The other material here is a decidedly mixed bag, ranging from the
Kander & Ebb "My Colouring Book," Ira and
George Gershwin's
"Summertime," and the
Bacharach/David "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" to
Bob Dylan's
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue" -- every track here is worth hearing, though the
Kander & Ebb number comes close to not working; and on the
Bacharach and
Dylan songs, and
"Lipstick Traces," "Don't Play That Song," "Looking for You," "Why Don't You Change Your Ways," and
"My Girl Josephine," it's very easy to forget that one is listening to a white vocalist working out of England. It was to be
Farlowe's most consistent and -- apart from a cover of
the Beatles'
"Yesterday" -- his most exciting album, and his purest
soul album. ~ Bruce Eder
