James Brown
Brown is now 53 and closer to being the grandfather of soul than the godfather. He doesn't bounce back from those splits quite so fast anymore. He still knows, however, how to caterwaul as if someone had just dropped an anvil on his bunion and make it sound not only passionate but musical. He seems also to have profited from a slight mellowing, which serves him particularly well on this LP on How Do You Stop, an easy-paced track co-written by Charlie Midnight and Dan Hartman, the former Edgar Winter band member who is now Brown's producer. The album also includes Living in America, the funk national anthem that, as a hit single last year, may have served as the vehicle Brown rides back into the mainstream. The rhythmic intensity of his singing—it's pre-rap in the secondary place he allots to melody—is still the stuff of which dancing is made, and Hartman's production gives him the right support at the right volume (loud, not overwhelming). Brown does in fact sometimes seem to be as much a force of nature as the title of his album. (Scotti Brothers)
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