On his 2011 debut LP, the then-62-year-old Charles Bradley recapped his hardscrabble life story with an impassioned plea (one of many on the record) imploring, “Why is it so hard/To make it in America?” His third album, by contrast, opens with a brief, heartfelt take on “God Bless America”—evincing none of the sly subversion of, say, labelmate Sharon Jones’ “This Land Is Your Land”—then nods to his present groovy, globe-trotting lifestyle with “Good To Be Back Home,” a fine if pat primer on his utterly uncanny James Brown-alike-isms.
So, sure, as the (killer) titular Sabbath cover has it, Bradley’s seen some changes in his seventh decade. But while his gloriously grizzled voice remains probably the most majestic instrument in the entire 21st-century retro-soul arsenal, and the Daptone mob mete out many more-than-serviceable grooves for him to rap atop, Changes offers no real shake-ups. Downplaying the psychedelic funk of his last outing for a relatively by-the-numbers set of Brown-ian movers and reliably wrenching love ballads, it lacks a certain contemporary vitality its predecessors—if improbably—nailed. But still, even boilerplate Bradley damn sure knows how to cook.
—K. Ross Ho ffman
