Prime Cuts: My Imagination, Something that We Do, Our Kind of Love (with Carolyn Dawn Johnson)
Cupid's quixotic ways gets an album's worth of veneration on Clint Black's latest enterprise. Culled from his extensive canon with one previously unrecorded entry (Jim Croce's "'I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song"), these are all songs thread together with romantic love at their cynosure. However, this is not your typical "best of" collection; these numbers are re-recorded with Black himself at the helm. While some have a religious similarity compared with the originals, a few are creatively encased with a different arrangement and nuanced by Black a little differently. Vocally, Black hits the high water mark here: he brings a more seasoned maturity that gives these romantic excavations depth and insights sometimes missing from the originals. Fans who have had been smitten by Black's honeyed nasal twang (as well as his chiseled dimples) will have much to revel here.
As aforementioned the sole previously unreleased track is Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song." Employing a 70s rock palette dotted with some winsome dobro punctuations, the midtempo "I'll Have to Say" rocks romantically with a tongue-tied Black opting for the radio as his communicative means to express his feelings to his paramour. Most drastic in terms of its stylistic make-over is "Our Kind of Love." While the original has a sinewy bluegrassy feel with Alison Krauss offering barely audible backing, this new version is a full-blown duet with Canadian chanteuse Carolyn Dawn Johnson on a fuller country underpinning. Similarly, Black's Grammy nominated duet with wife Lisa Hartman-Black "When I Said I Do" enjoys a luscious orchestrated arrangement, making its message of committed love sound even more gorgeously romantic.
Though Black nuances certain words differently relative to the original, "Something That We Do" still preserves the acoustic feel of the original. On "Like the Rain," Black's number 1 record from a few years back, he brings in fellow artist Steve Wariner to sing backup on what is the most poetic intricate ballad Black has had ever written. This multiple-CMA winner's use of the rain metaphor over the development of a couple's relationship from its blissful start to its tumultuous times is just stellar. As hinted by "Like the Rain," not everything is maudlin, so the less romantic at heart need not fret. "My Imagination," for instance, finds Black daydreaming about an unattainable lover that possesses a heartbreaking tenor that is just so bittersweet.
Of the hat-wearing alumni of the 90s, though Clint Black has made his mark, but he's often overlooked as a singer of songs that deal with the heart. Things are about to change with this new CD. With these songs so packed wih depth and emotions, Black has done himself, his fans and Cupid real proud.
