JOE COCKER – Fire It Up (2012)
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Rock and Blues legend JOE COCKER may not be in the limelight anymore with the change in popular music, but yet at 68 years of age his voice is still incredibly strong and gritty, making some ‘new stars’ look like an amateurs.
He’s back again with a very good new album; “Fire It Up”, Joe Cocker’s – believe it or not – 23rd studio recording.
Since I can remember, there’s always has been a new Cocker album out there, the man has not stop recording through his 40-year career, and all were, at least, decent.
Title track “Fire It Up” pretty sums up what this album is all about.
Co-written by Alan Frew (Glass Tiger), the track would be a well deserved number one, showcasing a fiery performance by Cocker for whom the years seem to have not taken its toll. A song full of real soul and meaning, you like it or not, but you cannot deny he is still as talented as he was back in his glory days of the seventies and eighties.
Joe has always worked with several outside songwriters.
Diverse album tracks include the bluesy rocker “Eye On The Prize” written by Marc Broussard from New Orleans and “I’ll Walk In The Sunshine Again” penned by the platinum selling singer-songwriter Keith Urban, which treads the line between country and blues.
“The Letting Go” written by the trio of Charlie Evans with renowned young British blues/soul singer Joss Stone and Grammy award winning Graham Lyle is a classic soulful number, while “I’ll Be Your Doctor” shows that typical Cocker R&B feeling. There’s good midtempos in “Younger” and the sensitive “You Love Me Back”, whilst “I Come In Peace” incorporates vintage keyboads over an organic production.
And we have a real gem in the shape of the aching “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing To Me”, a terrific piano ballad.
Joe Cocker is still very much a contemporary recording artist – and proves it with this new studio album “Fire It Up”.
His voice is in great condition, there’s a fine song selection, and production by Matt Serletic (Santana) is warm and organic.
This is timeless good music convincingly performed with Cocker’s signature passion, a stainless Classic Rock artist.
01 – Fire It Up
02 – I’ll Be Your Doctor
03 – You Love Me Back
04 – I Come In Peace
05 – You Don’t Need A Million Dollars
06 – Eye On The Prize
07 – Younger
08 – You Don’t Know What You’re Doing To Me
09 – The Letting Go
10 – I’ll Walk In The Sunshine Again
11 – Weight Of The World
BUY IT
www.amazon.de/Fire-It-Up-Joe-Cocker/dp/B00931ENLE
