You Are Not Alone
- Mavis Staples
- Band Name: Mavis Staples
- Record Label: Epitaph
- Release Date: Sep 14, 2010
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Jan 11, 201180Despite reaching her eighth decade, Staples is making music that is strikingly modern, but the defining concept of the album is timeless: unadulterated hope.
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60Tweedy's influence shows primarily on the two songs he wrote, especially the stoic title-track ballad. Yet the album's best moment belongs solely to Staples--a spare version of Randy Newman's "Losing You" that might well stand as definitive.
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82Rather than protest the state of the world, Staples is toasting human endurance-- hers as well as ours.
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At 71, Staples still knows how to hang tough and shows no signs of slowing down.
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The production is bright and clear, and the arrangements showcase the star.
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You Are Not Alone is a solid outing that somehow amazingly manages to be both secular and sacred at once, and there is a stripped-down timelessness to it.
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Staples isn't just a survivor. She's a great singer who is best when she gets to press onward.
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You Are Not Alone is mostly invigorating gospel, though he somehow got her to apply that mighty rasp to the saddest song ever, Randy Newman's "Losing You."
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There's nothing self-consciously modern or calculated about You Are Not Alone, no visible strain from trying to mold Staples' style into something she's not. It's just her, as she is at her best, and Tweedy deserves credit for bringing that out.
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80The entire set speaks directly to the struggles and fears of an America desperately searching for some meaning and uplift. Staples and Tweedy have crafted a record with heart and grace, but also some toughness--all of them necessary if the goal is transcending troubled times.
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Produced by Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy, Staples' latest is a joyous celebration of life and faith on traditional gospel songs and tunes by Tweedy, Allen Toussaint, John Fogerty, Randy Newman and Staples' father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples.
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70If consistency has its rewards, then You Are Not Alone is a treasure.
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You Are Not Alone is ultimately timeless rather than retro.
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Oct 26, 201080With You Are Not Alone, Staples proves that, at the age of 71, her voice is in better shape than ever. [Fall 2010, p.69]
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80The stripped-down, Muscle Shoals-style arrangements give Mavis space to do her thing, and the song choices are spot-on. [Oct 2010, p.106]
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60While on the secular likes of Randy Newman's Losing You she's never less than majestic, it's when celebrating her Lord that things really click. [Oct 2010, p.116]