Track Listing

1. Blow Me Away
2. This Ain't Gonna Work
3. Father and Friend
4. Hold On
5. Fell In Love
6. Go There
7. I Don't Wanna Change The World
8. Live It Out
9. She's The One
10. I Need You
11. All You Gotta Change
12. Father and Friend (radio edit)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29014 in Music
• Released on: 2009-04-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Nothing special, but at least he's trying to bring back the Soul
Another admirable attempt to bring back some of the feeling to modern R&B, which unfortunately founders on some very ordinary songs and production. Alain Clark wants to put back the Soul, and he's even written a song about it "Blow Me Away", an uptempo number which shows some promise, but unfortunately once we're beyond the duet "Father & Friend", the album becomes bogged down in formulaic mid-tempo mediocrity.

To be fair, this is not a bad album, and let's face it, it's a big ask to expect him to have anything really new to add to Soul, but in general I was left wondering what might be possible if Clark had access to some of the better producers around today - then we might actually see what Clarks' voice can do. As it is he is too often in territory occupied by the likes of Amos Lee and Lemar and he certainly isn't as good as the latter on this evidence.

Muzak man
I have never heard anything by Alain Clark before so I had no preconceptions before listening & I have written a review for each track rather than listen to it all 1st..
1) 'Blow me away'- A sort of Jamiroquai/ boyband sounding vocal which every now & then hints at Stevie Wonder. Let down by bog standard lyrics but nevertheless bounces along nicely.
2) 'This ain't gonna work'- Now he's sounding like Terence Trent Darby and there is a very real Motown vibe with good backing vocals & instrumentation. Rather nice guitar solo with a heavy foot on the wah wah pedal.
3) 'Father & friend'- A pleasant enough track which see's Clark duet, (presumably with his dad?), both showing appreciation for the other, which makes a nice change. Nice enough but not exactly outstanding.
4) 'Hold on'- Formulaic 70's style soul with some pretty poor backing vocals & playing.
5) 'Fell in love'- A brief moment of gospel style organ gives way to acoustic guitar then slide guitar which works surprisingly well & makes for a nice detour from the soul heavy feel that's gone before.
6) 'Go there'- Just another meandering soul track with little to differentiate it from the rest.
7) 'I don't wanna change the world'- See track 6.
8) 'Live it out'- A really really boring ballad.
9) 'She's the one'- Back to a sort of poor man's Stevie Wonder but again let down by dire lyrics vying with a tuneless bit of twiddly guitar.
10) 'I need you'- Yes but unfortunately I don't need you & this is getting boring. The horribly overused line of 'I need you more than you will ever know' is wheeled out to no effect whatsoever and coupled with what would appear to be a Will Young impersonation this track fails miserably.
11) 'All you gotta change'- A solo piano intro builds hope only for that to be dashed by an arrogant whinge about the many faults of his woman & songwriting of a standard so bad it's good " I don't understand/ All I know is that I'm your man/ I get to see 1st hand"! The appalling lyrics pile up into an unholy mess that left me shaking my head in disbelief. This is also the track where what had previously been the odd dodgy vocal is fully exposed as a very limited range and some very flat singing.
12) 'Father & Friend'- A pointless shorter version of track 3 to close out a pointless album.
Oh dear! Well I tried & have listened to the whole album once again in the hope that I missed something but it appears that all I missed was just how truly mediocre this guy's voice is and how uninspired & dull the songwriting.
This is the sort of mind numbing drivel that banks blast down the phone at you as a voice tells you they care about your call & you are in a queue. For what is clearly aiming for a soul revival this is tediously souless. Avoid.

Live it out and LIVE IT UPPPP
Live It Out
Watched Alain on Paul O'Grady- just had to buy the album. Brilliant - he has to make it in UK. He's very easy to listen to and even easier to look at. Check out the track Father and Friend - it is SUPERB