Al Green – The Belle Album – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

More Al Green

SUPER HOT STAMPERS and QUIET VINYL on BOTH sides of this fun ’70s Al Green album! This AMG 4 Star-rated album is the last secular music Green put out for a long time, and it sure is funky! We played a ton of these and found that the best copies such as this one are incredibly lively, clear and fun! 

The typical copy is dull up top and small in size. We played copy after copy and wondered “Where’s the energy?” until a Hot Stamper pressing finally hit the table and showed us how great this music can sound. While the typical copies put us to sleep, the Hot copies such as this one are so lively, present and balanced that it’s hard not to move your body to the beat.

It’s tough to find great sounding copies of Al Green’s great music, but it’s always a thrill to hear one of the best voices in soul when the sound is right. These shootouts are a labor of love — the records never come very cheaply and almost always disappoint, but it’s all worth it when you get to hear a pressing that presents the music with the kind of sound you know the musicians and engineers were going for.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Georgia Boy 
Loving You 
Feels Like Summer
Dream

Side Two

I Feel Good 
All N All 
Chariots of Fire
Belle

AMG  Review

Al Green severed his ties with longtime producer Willie Mitchell in 1977, establishing his own backup band and seizing the production reins. But he hadn’t yet made the final break with soul; this was the last secular work he would make for many years, and it was brilliant… “I Feel Good” had as much danceable energy and soulful fire as any Green up-tempo tune, and “Lovin’ You” and “Dream” were sorely underrated compositions.

Leave a Reply