William Bell’s new release This Is Where I Live on revived Stax Records keeps the same spirit, and purpose (or telos to quote the ancient Greeks,) as the label’s releases in 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s: that of an unashamed articulation of a Southern humanist musical accent true to local values that transcends or transfixes a listener.
Years after the heyday of Stax Records Soul music, William Bell is back at it with the similar compositions, all produced to feel as clear as any new style of song and not to mimic an old one. This time his song is much graver than it was the case for his older songs such as his “A Tribute To A King” on The Very Best Of William Bell. His songs are lyrically complex and it gives his music a valuable quality: his songs must be listened to more than once in order to feel a complete plunge into them. They are not as complex instrumentally, but that’s all right.
Much has been put in these songs lyrically; the simplicity in their instrumentation, as it’s always the case for William Bell, is deceptive. “Poison in the well” is an enjoyable listen and sounds like a metaphor, as fairy tales or myths seem to all be. He sings “she put poison in the well / and I drank it” with so much ease and faith in the experience that he persuades us that it’s only normal to. If it is an attempt at singing a myth: congratulations. “Mississippi – Arkansas Bridge” is a long song that requires the same listening into as a short story or a novel.
Bell’s singing style is that of a singer of beautiful troubadour epics or of beautiful troubadour narratives – he articulates the words and the ideas that make his songs logical letting this story swoon as much as his voice. It is the most impressive element of the album and should exist more in American song. The language of the songs’ lyrics is fairly simple and, given the possibilities that come with his singing style, these songs could have worked with much more complex language. It would have been even better to hear him sing us words that impress.
Stax Records Soul meant to meld the erotic and the political into one burning experience. Bell’s songs will unhinge some with their eroticism but will not for others.
Listeners who were not around for Stax’s greater days and who are now left with old recordings will find in this album the possibility of listening to a renewed, and clear, version of Stax soul.
Author: Adolf Alzuphar
