Robert Cray: Shoulda Been Home : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Depending on what comes next, the twelfth album from Eighties crossover smash and Sixties soul revivalist Robert Cray will either be considered a hodgepodge or a transition. It's beautiful in places -- Cray has slowly turned himself into a great singer, whether he's trying not to wake the kids in the low-talking "Far Away" or trying to leap over Sam Cooke in "Anytime." But where Cray's impeccable 1999 album Take Your Shoes Off had a mission statement -- to reproduce the classic sound of Memphis' Stax Records studio -- Shoulda Been Home can't decide where it wants to go. "Out of Eden" is an ordinary nine-minute blues jam, allowing Cray to show off for the Stevie Ray Vaughan worshipers; Sir Mack Rice's "Love Sickness" is explosive, horn-enriched rock 'n' roll; and the rest are Soul Ballads, Part II. Although Cray brings back the Take Your Shoes Off band and producer Steve Jordan, Shoulda Been Home never duplicates the excitement of studio discovery. (STEVE KNOPPER - May 14, 2001)