Clint Black isn't the first artist to offer a different spin on a greatest-hits package by reworking some of his old blockbusters instead of packaging the originals together, but he may well have set a new standard for such endeavors with The Love Songs. Black's vocals this time out prove considerably more mature than the first time around. The lilting beauty of "You...
Read moreClint Black isn't the first artist to offer a different spin on a greatest-hits package by reworking some of his old blockbusters instead of packaging the originals together, but he may well have set a new standard for such endeavors with The Love Songs. Black's vocals this time out prove considerably more mature than the first time around. The lilting beauty of "You Made Me Feel" is enhanced by Black's assured reading, which is tinged with the subtlest of blues and goosed along by a gently swinging small combo groove; Bryan Austin's atmospheric finger-picked acoustic guitar lead and Black's own harmonica fills add a rustic feel to the simple, sensible sentiments of "Something That We Do"; employing a more muscular, rock-inflected sonic palette dotted with fiddles, pedal steel, electric guitar, and cannon-shot drums, Black does his part on "That Something in My Life" with a forceful declaration of his heart's affection for a significant other. "When I Said I Do," the luscious, orchestrated, heart-tugging (and Grammy-nominated) duet with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, sets the romantic tone for what's to come, while the closing number is an imaginative arrangement of Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song," featuring winsome dobro punctuations and electric piano interjections. No stranger to honest, heartfelt music, Black has done himself and his fans proud with these fresh takes on that old feeling.
