"Still Lovin' You" is Robert Bradley's second CD for Vanguard and it finds him returning to his R&B roots. It lacks the alternative edge of his previous efforts such as "Time To Discover" (with the MTV hit "Higher") and the eponymously titled 2nd album (with the magnificent "California"). But it's funky and soulful with an urban poetry that mines themes both beautiful and alarming. Still it's laid back vibe suggests that it's something less than it is.
Make no mistake. The sunny groove masks Bradley's underlying disappointment and frustration with a career that seems to take off then run out of steam. At the moment his big break presents itself a trajedy befalls Bradley and his band. Personnel shifts are tangled up with missed opportunities that are unexpected. This cat's at the crossroads in his life and he's totally pissed off and a little frightened about his future. Look at the cover photos... Bradley ain't jumpin' for joy. He looks pensive, worried. And he's feeling the weight of making great music that's not recognized and the strain of heavy touring that doesn't pay.
It's the life of a working musician. And it's not always pretty. Past regrets ride the back of our present fears and invade our thoughts and dreams as if to say..."I'm not done with you yet". But Robert Bradley ain't about to give up. And this disc is testimony to his resilience. And it's a gospel about suffering and redemption. Sure it's difficult to listen to "Still Lovin' You".
It's too REAL
When I listened to it I was skeptical. My family said it "sucked".
But that was just the first time around.
So I went ahead and put it back in that neat little Sony 5 disc player I got at Best Buy last Christmas. Then I played it again...and again...and once more.
Then it dawned on me
There's more to it than I first imagined
Soo let's take a listen together...
my treat

All I Wanna Do opens with a keyboard riff that recalls McCartney's "With A Little Luck". In fact it could be a close cousin to McCartney's ode to hope and love. Robert links man's deep yearning for his woman to biblical times and reminds us that
"in these present days"
"a woman love"
" a man still crave". The ambience is that of need and desire not fulfillment. He sings that his love is "GONNA" be strong...he's GONNA keep on holdin' on. As if it's in a process of being. An uncertainty envelopes his assertions.

I Thank You picks up the pace. But no one can really rival Sam & Dave's reading of this great soul track. Instead Bradley gives it another vibe entirely. Less salacious and more sensuous. It till oozes sex but with more intimacy and commitment. From Robert's unique lens this track works perfectly.

Still Lovin' You is cool-as-ice soul music... a love song with an edge. The protagonist still wants her but when he interjects "no matter what you say or do" there is an element of ambivalence. He notes that "it's been two years now".
But like our lives, love is always imperfect. There are small betrayals and little white lies that build mountainous around our love. And as the years add up the mountain just may get a little slippery. This is an assurance that's wrapped up in a cover of doubt.

When You Love Something opens with a circular guitar riff straight out of "Surfer Girl" but is more reminiscent of "When A Man Loves A Woman" (Percy Sledge)in the chord progression, organ fill, the brass counterpoint, and overall vibe. This a pure love song with some well written and confident metaphors

"Like the river loves the water
"You know what it's like...
to love somebody's daughter"
"Like the wind gotta blow
"Like the flowers, the spring time gotta grow"

Pretender is stark in it's honesty. Here Bradley questions his music, his very craft. Can it sustain him or only lead to further disappointment. He's not so sure...and he's scared (we all are)...

"Thinking about times to come"
"And wondering where I'll be"
"a million roads left behind"
"a million more to see"

"I'm a pretender"
"Somehow being a winner".

Anna begins with a soft melancholy piano riff that matches the emotional tone in the lyrics. This is a powerful account of loss and abandonment. Robert's regret stands naked, revealed for all to hear...and to feel. It's a father's plea to his now grown daughter. Somehow their relationship got tangled up in the adult problems that initially separated them. Bradley's pain is palpable...

"Please Tell Anna I miss her
"As you travel down life's road"
"Please tell Anna I miss her"
"Way Down in my soul"
"Way down in my soul"

"If you see her up in Boston"
"Or maybe out on the west coast"
"Aw-please tell Anna"
"her dad miss her so
"Way down in my soul"

A great track with depth and meaning and a can't miss melody line.
One of Bradley's greatest works and his most powerful performance to date!

Virginia is a red-hot libidinal memory of an early love - a youthful fling so urgent in it's impulse that they could barely contain themselves. But in going back home the heat returns in a graphic chain of memory... shared between two lovers for the rest of their lives. Robert opens the song singing plaintively over an acoustic guitar...an organ - sounding rich and pure like a Hammond B3 - gradually builds and riffs like Al Kooper on Positively 4th Street.

"Me and Mr. Jones daughter used to hang out at the beach"
"Oh lord, her rosy red apples swinging from her trees"
"Her sister Sadie a rockin' there sittin' on the porch"
Lord she so lovely you never make an approach"

"Tonight down in Virginia"
"I talked to Mr. Time
"Don't worry to come on in"
"Night time in Virginia is listening to my friends"
Another strong track that gets better with repeated listenings.

Don't Take Your Love Away is a piano-led ballad about loneliness and despair. At first it seems like a straight forward "why don't you love me no more?" love song. It's all that and more. In a broader sense it echoes Robert's sense of professional torpor. The tempo increases as horns fall in and a funky guitar punctuates Robert's frustration.

Work It Out is Detroit soul at it's best with a cool Stevie Wonder vibe. It's about relationships that go sour "when things go wrong". Bradley insists that they "can straighten it out". Afterall, she chased away "so many heartaches before". A great performance

Hollywood is biting satire set to a jaunty beat and a bouncy keyboard riff. Robert can barely contain his anger as he spits out and slurs the lyrics. On the chorus he resorts to the master-master ebonics of "Lord I works in Hollywood". Bradley lists the do-rights that wronged him with false promises and/or outright deception including his first post-college band, ex-lovers, record compnay executives, and former musician-friends from Detroit's eastern market. He even takes a swipe at Kid Rock and the co-optation of rap. This is a stunning performance with such brittle vitriol and malevolent humor tbat it could have come from the pen of Randy Newman or Warren Zevon.
The centerpiece of "Still Lovin' You"!!
This is a remarkable body of music for what it's not. For instance, Bradley consciously moved beyond the formulaic (if it happens more than once or twice) merging of R&B/soul with alternative rock 'n' roll. So the disc doesn't really ROCK. Instead it asks the listener to really LISTEN and discover a more nuanced message that is cloaked in rootsy Detroit R&B from the glory days of Joe Weaver, Alberta Adams, Hastings Street. The vibe is at once playful and painful... with a whole lotta heart.
Will "Still Lovin' You" win Bradley more listeners?
Is this a good career move?
The songs are superb and the performances are unique and powerful. But this body of work is too complex for just a cursory listen...hmm - no rockers..all sounds the same...forget it.
BULLSHIT
This disc may ask a little too much from a preoccupied and insular public that is too programmed to follow anything more complicated than manufactured formats and slogans that pass for quick answers.
The CD is dedicated to Marjorie Falks, Robert's aunt who always encouraged him to "keep on playin" & keep on singin"...that he had the talent to make it.
AMEN

Robert White
11/29/03