{"id":30871,"date":"2026-03-31T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30871"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:21:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:21:55","slug":"album-reviews-four-by-ray-charles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/album-reviews-four-by-ray-charles\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Reviews: Four by Ray Charles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among his myriad achievements, Ray Charles was the consummate crossover artist. Across the scope of his lengthy career, he made music in a wide variety of styles: r&b, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, blues, jazz, gospel, and even country and western. His body of work is staggeringly large and confusing, with more than 250 releases to his credit. Attempts to codify his catalog into any sort of accurate list have been met with frustration. Of course it\u2019s all about the music, but attempting to compile anything approaching a complete Ray Charles collection is a fool\u2019s errand. One would end up with a great deal of wonderful music, albeit with inevitable omissions and as many duplications.<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, a new campaign has reissues three of Charles\u2019 albums, and created one \u201cnew\u201d one packaged to look and play like a long-lost vintage LP. Here\u2019s a look at all four vinyl releases.<\/p>\n

\"\"Come Live With Me <\/b><\/i>
\nReleased in 1974, this album features Charles in fine voice, backed by a massive string section. Initially, it\u2019s MOR in the extreme, an exemplar of what was then known as \u201ceasy listening.\u201d Sid Feller\u2019s arrangements are quite nice for what they are. But those tracks are a red herring: just when the listener thinks they\u2019ve got the album pegged, things take a very weird turn. \u201cSomebody\u201d is a mess, albeit a glorious one that must be heard to be believed. Loads of crosstalk and shifting meters might make first-time listeners thinking they\u2019ve somehow hit \u201cplay\u201d on two different songs at once. More conventional and far better, \u201cProblems, Problems\u201d is funky and soulful. \u201cLouise\u201d is rock solid as well. On one hand, Come Live With Me<\/i> is a bizarre grab bag that\u2019s unlikely to satisfy the casual audient. On the other, it features enough deep-cut gems to make it a must-hear. This remastered reissue is pressed on vivid tangerine (get it?) vinyl.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul<\/b><\/i>
\nA true classic, 1963\u2019s Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul<\/i> showcased Charles at the peak of his powers, while pivoting to a style designed to attract the widest possible audience. The hit \u201cBusted\u201d opens the set, and the LP serves as a tasty sampler of just how broad Charles\u2019 sonic palette was. There\u2019s lovely big band music (\u201cWhere Can I Go?\u201d), syrupy yet alluring balladry (\u201cBorn to be Blue\u201d), gospel-tinged tracks (\u201cThat Lucky Old Sun\u201d), show tunes (\u201cOl\u2019 Man River,\u201d \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d), Vegas-y blues-jazz (\u201cWorried Life Blues\u201d) and more. Only the last of those features Ray on his trusty Wurlitzer electric piano, but everything here is worthwhile on some level.<\/p>\n

\"\"Love Country Style <\/b><\/i>
\nRay Charles would be a giant in music even if the only record he ever made was 1962\u2019s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music<\/em>. But not only did he record and release a second volume in that style, but he crafted several more records exploring his take on c&w. 1970\u2019s Love Country Style<\/i> is only nominally a country record. \u201cIf You Were Mine\u201d is slick countrypolitan pop with more than a dose of soul. His reading of Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cRing of Fire\u201d is almost unrecognizable; Ray completely reinvents the tune, making it his own while conjuring thoughts of \u2013 no, really \u2013 Donovan\u2019s \u201cSeason of the Witch.\u201d Elsewhere, the orchestrated \u201cYour Love is So Doggone Good\u201d opens with a flourish that suggests Grieg\u2019s \u201cIn the Hall of the Mountain King.\u201d Weird, that. The choir backing on \u201cTill I Can\u2019t Take it Anymore\u201d and \u201cGood Morning Dear\u201d are a bit over the top, but gems like \u201cI Keep it Hid\u201d more than redeem the record\u2019s excesses.<\/p>\n

\"\"No One Does it Like… Ray Charles!<\/b><\/i>
\nThis record is billed in promotional materials as a \u201clost\u201d album. As the story goes, a record called Ray Charles <\/i>S<\/i>ings for <\/i>Y<\/i>ou<\/i> was scheduled for release in 1965 but pulled at the last minute in favor of a live set. Like many of Charles\u2019 efforts, the record is stylistically varied, though the easy-listening textures are dialed back in favor of brassy, showy tunes that emphasize his soulful and bouncy side. Those who\u2019ve picked up all four of these new records will discover that \u201cWorried Life Blues\u201d is the same track heard on Ingredients<\/em> (see above). In fact all of the tracks here have appeared on other releases. But the compilers deserve credit for striking the right note in the packaging of this record, which looks for all the world like a classic LP from Charles\u2019 peak era. And like all the releases in this latest salvo, it\u2019s on tangerine vinyl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among his myriad achievements, Ray Charles was the consummate crossover artist. Across the scope of his lengthy career, he made music in a wide variety of styles: r&b, rock \u2018n\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19,20,51,60,64,65,69,73],"tags":[1792],"class_list":["post-30871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-compilation","category-country","category-pop","category-rb","category-reissue","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-ray-charles","cat-9-id","cat-19-id","cat-20-id","cat-51-id","cat-60-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30871"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31204,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871\/revisions\/31204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}