Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 11/20/1995
This two-fer reissues
soul belter
Chuck Jackson's earliest LPs for the
Wand label. A significant cut above the typical filler-stuffed
soul collections of the early '60s,
I Don't Want to Cry's hit title cut serves as a springboard to explore 11 other tear-stained tunes, forming a concept record detailing the many subtle gradations of melancholy and heartbreak.
Pop classics like
"Tears on My Pillow," "Lonely Teardrops," and
"Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" are well matched to
Jackson's deep, poignant vocals -- blunt emotional force was always his greatest strength, and rarely was he served by better material, most notably the early
Burt Bacharach/
Hal David collaboration
"I Wake Up Crying." Indeed, after
Dionne Warwick,
Jackson was arguably the premier interpreter of the indelible
Bacharach oeuvre, and
Any Day Now's title cut remains the apex of their collaboration, its dramatic arrangement and suffocating fatalism proving the perfect showcase for
Jackson's richly poignant vocals. The LP also features the wrenching
ballad "I Keep Forgetting," but on the whole it's wildly uneven, fleshing out the hits with pedestrian filler. The singer invests even the weakest material, like
"Angel of Angels," with startling emotion, but more often than not his rescue attempts fall short.
~Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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