On a Distant Shore

The result is as Russell surely intended. [Dec 2017, p.110]

Russell was clearly fully committed to the project, with sincere lyrics and a strained, emotional vocal sustained by luscious strings. [Dec 2017, p.30]

The soul-rock icon hasn't sounded so alive in years. From the swampy choogle of "Love This Way" to the supper-club orchestration of "On the Waterfront" to the Cotton Club jazz of "Easy to Love," he poignantly circles his musical bases one last time.

Those who wanted a well-rounded musical summation of Russell’s oeuvre instead of this highly stylized set of romantic musings might be disappointed, but this is the album he wanted to leave as his legacy. As such, it’s a significant, often impressive work from one of rock and roll’s true icons who has chosen a unique and, to many, surprisingly starry-eyed way to say goodbye.

His facility with the form is evident on songs like “Easy To Love”, which aptly has the smooth, easy manner of a standard, and more dramatically with “On The Waterfront”, which renders solitude in epic fashion. ... Elsewhere, he reverts to form with the rolling blues arrangement of “Love This Way”, with his signature piano to the fore, and terse blues guitar punctuating his account of being “lost inside the darkness and the howling wind”.

The unfamiliar are advised to check out his first three solo albums. [Dec 2017, p.92]

It has a few worthy cuts and in its ungainly construction, it holds true to the weirdness of most of Russell's discography.

Thanks to Mark Lambert’s overly ostentatious and frequently intrusive production, Russell occasionally sounds lost within his own material.