Rock ’n Soul

Ehhhh

Outstanding. A lot I knew there and some great others with real influence from Jazz and influence on future music.

I didn't think I was gonna like this album based on "Soul" being in the title, but this isn't run-of-the-mill Goodfellas background music. There's some very interesting musical interpretations of rock and/or soul here, including some fairly intricate accoustic guitars. And of course, his voice is great.

Lovely, a wonderful surprise (I didn't knew this), I greatly enjoyed it, it helped me a lot through the working day ;-)

7/12 top 100 hits? Wild ratio. This is nice, but clearly a function of the times, like Sinatra's works, 3*

I hadn't heard of Solomon Burke before. I liked this - he has a good voice. The arrangements and songs here don't seem as strong as some of his contemporaries though.

Being exposed to albums like this is complete validation of a project like this. Great stuff.

I’m sure this guy was very influential to a lot of people. But just like a lot of people who are influential, when you listen to them after hearing all the people they influenced it sounds dated. That’s how I feel about this album.

The voice is so emotional and moving, the songs have that sweet soul sound...
It's a shame this guy didn't get more attention because he deserved it.

Great vocalist. Tight band. Mellow 50’s style dinner show type stuff. Not my genre but well done.

I've heard of Solomon Burke before as one of the founding fathers of soul music. I've already heard "Cry to Me" from this album, which is such a powerful song about feeling down and lonesome. As much as I generally enjoyed the rest of Rock N' Soul, it's clear that "Cry to Me" was a hard track to follow up from.

Throughout this album, the general style tends to be swinging soul music with lyrical themes of love and relationships. While there isn't a bad song on here, and Solomon did his best to sell each track with his belting tenor vocals, most of this album tends to feel repetitive with the instrumental structures and lyrics. There are some other personal highlights besides "Cry to Me", such as the up-tempo cover of Woody Guthrie's "Hard, Ain't it Hard", the slowed-down crooner of "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)", and the playful guitar line of "Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)", though those standouts moments for me were few and far between.

I'm still glad I listened to Rock N' Soul and enjoyed Solomon's work. This album made the list for historical significance, and as such I can live with that and cherry-pick the songs I want to revisit.

Not my favourite genre but I appreciate it considering the context of the time in question.

Sort of like decent Elvis crash landed on Brooke Benton island. Someone To Love Me is pretty great. Opening track (at least on Spotify) is fantastic for the genre. Solomon has a lovely and expressive voice. If you're a fan of modern things like St. Paul and The Broken Bones this will pick your locks without effort. It's a decently composed album as far as track ordering. If anything it suffers from being its own sea of same. Like an Ink Spots record, if you've heard the first three tracks, the rest will simply be more of the same. It gets a 6/10 from me. better than average for sure but not really my game overall.

I don't think I'd ever heard any of this before. Just have heard various covers of it before. It's hard to tell though because it sounds a lot like any of the 50s/60s soul/R&B. I guess maybe it was a little behind the time? It's good for what it is, just not exactly to my taste. He's got a great voice, though, that's for sure. I can definitely see how this was a major influence on a lot of music to come, so I am happy to have heard it and would agree that it belongs on this list. It's just not one that I would really play again. 2.5/5 rounding up because it seems like the right thing to do.

What a beautiful album!

Loved his voice and the songs

5 ⭐️

Amazing voice! I listened to it in awe. The songs were fun but there was nothing that stood out to me in the instrumentals. But his voice man, just perfect.

Alkoi vahvemmin kuin päättyi, joten kolmoseen jää.

New discovery for me! What a voice. I’m not sure of the timing, did he influence Elvis it was it the other way around? Or they just have similar influences. This album was too short, left me wanting more. Turns out he recorded for decades, so I know who I’ll be listening to today!

Really enjoyed this!

This dude has a great voice and sound. Great rock and roll sound. The album though is very one dimensional with very little else to offer. I can see why its historically important but for me its very samey

Favourite song: Cry to me
Least favourite: nothing is bad but little stands out
Album artwork: Standard cover