Pat Gwinn

Have you recently pulled out an old, cherished, LP from the 70s / 80s and said ruefully "they don't them like this any more"? Well, I know I have said that on many occasion, here they are – the legendary Embers – to remind us that, in fact, there is still REAL soul being made. This is, my friends, the real deal.As a writer, rarely can I say that no words I write could ever do this CD justice, but on this occasion, it is true. Here we have real singing, live orchestration, lush strings and brass, and all produced in masterly fashion by producer Charles Wallert. I have not been so excited about an album in this way for some time, and it is on constant rotation at home and in the car. The album is a vibrant mix of scintillating ballads and tasty midtempo numbers. The more uptempo songs are a wonderful fusion of recent outings from both the Main Ingredient and the Chestnut Brothers. Indeed, the vocals seriously echo Cuba Gooding in places. Furthermore, by way of helpful comparison, I would say that one of my favourite periods of music was 1983 – 1984. Then, Columbia spent a lot of time and money on their artists, and if songs such as Rodney Franklin's "Love Is The Answer", Philip Bailey's "It's Our Time" and Ramsey Lewis' "Midnight Rendezvous" are as much of your very essence as they are mine, then this CD is a must-have.