Good Things

Blacc's wise-beyond-his-years tenor, sounding eerily alike a young Bill Withers, perfectly fits I Need A Dollar's dignified mourn. Elsewhere, he skillfully evades mawkishness or trite sentiment on the moving Momma Hold My Hand. [Sep 2010, p.106]

Anyone with a taste for neo-soul should try Good Things unique flavor. It comes on familiar and comfortable and becomes more rich and rewarding with every return visit.

Good Things is sufficiently accomplished, in fact, to at least temporarily banish the clouds of financial doom and gloom to the horizon.

Much of this album, with its gritty street-level reportage of booze-alleviated dereliction and crooked politicians, feel so perfect for right now.

Having experienced life on both sides of the social divide, Blacc writes affectingly of the damage caused ("These families in the street with nothing to eat/ Little baby boys and girls, no shoes on their feet", he sings in Life So Hard), mixing conscious lyrics and avuncular warmth in a way that recalls Gil Scott-Heron....A real discovery.

Modest protest songs, lack of money and painful love is the platform on Good Things. He deals with hardship in an uplifting manner and with smart lyrics.

This follow-up goes one further [than his 2006 debut], pushing Dawkins to the forefront of modern soul voices, his delivery suggesting a less showy John Legend. [Nov 2010, p.105]

The production from song to song remains strong, but many of the tracks tend to blur together on repeated listens.

Aloe Blacc's Good Things is a mature, well-crafted, and distinctive take on the basic blueprint of the neo-soul sound, the quasi-revival movement that embraced classic soul and funk tropes that had been abandoned by much of the R&B establishment.

For those, like me, who previously dismissed Aloe Blacc, Good Things warrants our reconsideration. Blacc's changed his tune. We probably should, too

This collection of songs have no problems with originality (redundancy isn't an issue) but it never escapes its aged disposition.