From Elvis in Memphis

This album is a mixture of blues, country, gospel sounds, and Elvis's soulful voice. This is my first full album exposure to Elvis (the generator seems to enjoy giving me later works by an artist). Elvis always seemed more like a character to me than an artist (just based on what I've seen and heard in mainstream pop culture). Listening to this kind of humanized him for me, however. I can tell that Elvis had presence and appeal, but this kind of music just doesn't resonate with me.

It's unfortunate my two favorite songs on this albums aren't from the original release, but from the bonus material. Kentucky Rain and Suspicious Minds are my two favorites.

There doesn't feel to me like there's anything groundbreaking here, but it's all good music. Very enjoyable.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jamais écouté avant.

Du Elvis tardif, que je ne connaissais pas du tout. La voix fatiguée (mais ça lui va plutôt bien), il livre un album disparate, accompagné par des musiciens très talentueux. Tantôt crooner guimauve un peu pathétique, tantôt plus inspiré quand il parvient à faire cohabiter ses racines country et blues avec ses inspirations soul.

Top : Power of My Love
Flop : I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)

This is cool and all but I'm a Beatles guy.

Hmmm - to me this is just Cheesy Vegas Lounge Singer Elvis. Leaves me cold. In fact it actively makes me want to put something else on…..so worse than cold!

2 - just because Suspicious Minds is pretty decent.

Suspicious Minds“ trägt das Album spürbar. Die Mischung aus Soul, Country und moderner Produktion wirkt direkt, kraftvoll und erstaunlich frisch. Nicht jeder Titel sitzt, aber die Highlights haben genug Gewicht, um das Gesamtwerk klar nach oben zu ziehen.

Great...Elvis just stealing other (most black) artists songs and using his dumb voice. Look, i'm not the target Elvis audience. The session musicians here are solid - and there are some good vibes- but it gets old pretty fast.

The recording of in the ghetto should be buried 6ft in the ground to never be seen again.

not so familiar with "later" elvis, but the sound is refreshingly different, while still being clearly elvis.

Elvis as he starts to slide into lounge singer. Listened up as far as In The Ghetto, which is where the original album ended.

Would you believe I’m at a 10?

It’s been 555 days since we last got Elvis Presley, which is crazy to say. I remember his debut decently well, & given the 13-year gap here between albums, I was hoping his musicianship would’ve jumped leaps & bounds. For as much media as there is out there about Elvis, trying to create the definitive narrative around his life, I’ve just never really engaged with it. To my mind, he did some pelvic thrusts that made teenagers swoon & made parents furious, he parlayed it into a big movie career, and then he lost control of himself before dying in 1977. Roughly, I think that’s how most people know Elvis.

I didn’t know this album though, and my goodness, it’s a real delight to hear Elvis with what could sincerely be called “modern” production for the time. Sure, it’s no “Abbey Road” or anything, but the Memphis soundscape & the percussive grooves that underline this album & guide Elvis’s vocals along the way certainly feel far better to listen to than the stuff from 1956. Elvis himself just delivers these tracks like he wrote them all along, & while there’s not a single thing he penned here, he’s taken ownership over all of them. It also helps that, for the most part, he’s covering white artists on this album. My earliest nitpicks here were simply that tracks were fading out, but I got more used to it as the album went along. There are some tracks that I think might service themselves better with a definitive ending (especially so on “After Loving You”), but it’s a nitpick. My other one is that “I’ll Hold You in My Heart” is a little long, but it’s whatever.

Once this album hits “I’m Movin’ On”, and the extent of the Memphis soundscape starts to REALLY integrate itself into the album, it never once looks back. It was already pretty good before that point, but afterwards, it just absolutely soars to the finish. Elvis’s charisma & charm just elevates as high as the instrumentation takes him, & with every track being really well-written, the overall musicianship just feels like listening to a guy at his peak, & “In The Ghetto” feels like a perfect closer to the whole package. Even though this album doesn’t technically include “Suspicious Minds”, I’d be remiss to not talk about it – it only takes one listen to hear the acclaim on that track, and while I’d never paid closer attention to it until now, something about Elvis’s delivery throughout just oozes confidence, even on a track centered around the pain of doubt. It’s a great track, and the fact that it’s not even part of the main track list here just kinda proves how good the album is overall.

Hence, a 10. I’m surprised I’m at a 10, but there’s really not a single miss here & I enjoyed the hell out of the whole thing. Sure, others might dismiss it as cheap country fare that occasionally gets a cool drum beat behind it, but for my tastes, it just feels like Elvis modernizing his sound in a way that feels natural. At the very least, it’s probably an attempt to prove he can still hang in there even while four dudes in England were revolutionizing the world, and I think he hung in there pretty damn well. Sure, it’s no “Abbey Road”, but it’s not trying to be. It’s just Elvis in Memphis, and he sounds great. It’s a 10.

While I never bought into the king of rock n roll. I’m more in the Chuck D camp when it comes to EP ( “Elvis ain’t shit to me …”). I do think he has a great voice hence the colonel glomming on to him.

Stuck somewhere between the 50s white washing of black blues and rock and the much needed come back special is this gospel rock album.

I have a soft spot for 60/80s gospel blues so this gets a slightly higher rating than I expected.

I highly recommend the Holy Church Of The Ecstatic Soul
A Higher Power: Gospel, Funk & Soul At The Crossroads 1971 - 83 by soul jazz records

This is later-day Elvis. The blues is pretty much gone and you can almost hear the fat depositing. Turn your head and look towards his past. This is an example of decline. 1.5 stars.

Probably the best group of Elvis songs I have heard.

I’d rather this than Frank Sinatra. I listened through it twice in a row and, while I think it’s too long, I was entertained. Seriously, how does 50min feel so long?

The album starts off pretty fun and upbeat, but ends on a real downer in “Mama Liked The Roses”. If this was an actual concert, that’s an awful way to send your crowd back out into the world.

I do like that Hagstrom he’s got on the cover though.

It was pretty great, nothing wildly special but every track carried weight and pure emotion and performance from of course the iconic Elvis Presley.

He sounds more of a crooner and soul singer here and I love him for it.

I mean it’s so good. Especially, In the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds.

I have long not enjoyed an album that I didn’t know before as much as I enjoyed this one. Never was a big Elvis fan, and this won’t change much overall, but man, From Elvis in Memphis is 90% nothing short of stunning. The performances and the arrangements are absolutely ace. All of the musicians are brilliant; Elvis’ singing is super expressive; the selection of songs makes for an impeccable flow. I fully understand why this is seen as a classic. It has stood the test of time - and it has a great cover. Where the country influences take over too much (“I’ll Hold You in My Heart,” “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’”), those are the songs which I’m not particularly crazy about. But overall, this was an incredible listen (or rather, three listens). The melody in “Long Black Limousine” - ah, it just hits the right spots. I can’t stop listening to it for now.

Good songs, fantastic expensive backing and arrangements. In the hands of Sinatra or George Jones this would be a five star lp. Even Glenn Campbell or Neil Diamond would have made a good album. But Elvis, although he has a good voice is not at that level. He switches between loud and quiet irrespective of what the song calls for; he doesn’t enunciate clearly. Yes he’s more competent that Buble and Robbie Williams but he doesn’t pack an emotional punch. But all in all it’s a fair to middling performance.

Meh. Good voice but they’re not his songs. And nothing too interesting.