George Benson - Irreplaceable
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CD Details
Artist: George BensonEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-06-08
Music Label: Grp Records
Soundtracks:
- Irreplaceable
- Cell Phone
- Black Rose
- Take You Out
- Strings Of Love - George Benson
- Missing You
- Six Play
- Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
- Stairway To Love
- Arizona Sunrise
Music reviews of Irreplaceable
Music Review: Embarrasingly bad commercialism from a musical genius - SAD
Rating: 2 Stars
Benson is the musician who has inspired me most in my musical career (second only to Stevie Wonder), so the following review is not meant to trash him; just an expression of disappointment. I've been listening to GB's older albums for 20 years, they never get tiresome, some of them are masterpieces. It's always an event when he releases an album. But in this case, I'm sorry to say, this album is a dismal failure - something I'll never listen to again, a waste of money. George has fallen back on his worst commercial tendencies. He's a living legend, a multi-millionaire, and nearing 60, yet for some inexplicable reason he's hooked up with a talentless hip-hop producer to make the shallowest possible music. This is the time in his career when he should be going back to his roots, doing the kind of top quality jazz he longs to do - and as a reward for his longtime fans who've endured his past 25 years of crass commercialism (Big Boss Band & Tenderly excepted). But instead, he sold out yet again. This album is meaningless & empty. It's just one big dollar sign. George Benson has as much in common with a hip-hop rap producer as Frank Sinatra has with Mariah Carey. Every song has the exact same sound/feel, as if it all was scooped out of a giant vat of gooey, radio friendly slop. You know, the one that people like Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce go to - the Fake Soul vat that guarantees a return on the record company's investment, but is devoid of any musical quality whatsoever.
The lyrics are laughably bad - unless you think GB's repeating of the phrase "girl, I love ya girl, oh yeah girl" is innovative. How he was able to go in the studio and sing this junk with any inspiration, I'll never know. Apparently, he can reduce his quality standards to absolute zero, and live with it. I've never understood how he can do that so easily. He's a mystery to me. He made some albums in the 80's that were simply bad commercial sellouts, and this was at a time when he already a millionaire and didn't need to do that!
The few instrumentals are superficially listenable, but a closer listen reveals they're just watered-down aimless noodling compared to what this brilliant guitarist has done in the past. Rubbing salt in the wound is GRP head honcho and Benson's producer from "the good old days", Tommy LiPuma, who approved this project and spews out the same fake excitement about it that George does. It's mindboggling that people with such high musical standards can release this commercial junk to the public, and SMILE about it, calling it "a new direction." They both know (I presume) that at this stage of his career, GB should be playing the great guitar soul-jazz that made him famous. There will NEVER be another guitarist like him; what a shame to see him waste his talent, album after album for *decades*. But I guess George needs another house or BMW, so he'll do this stuff until he realizes that it doesn't matter if "the kids" are hip to him, or not. People who are gonna get hip to George will find him on their own, later in life; they don't need to hear this kind of stuff on the radio to check him out further. Before you know it, he'll be too old to make ANY recordings, and he'll have to look back on albums like this and say "why in the heck did I waste my time on that crap?!"
Lest you think I'm a totally negative person, I do have one positive thing to say about this album: George's singing is pretty darn good, and saves this album from getting one star in my rating. He sounds younger, and seems to have given it an extra effort to avoid that "old man" sound which has plagued his recent recordings (as far back as 1990, in fact.) But if you're considering buying the album because of that, I still suggest you skip it. Even good singing can't redeem something that is 99% manure.
I think GB will learn his lesson from this album, which I hope disappears quickly and permanently. This lengthy GRP quiet storm phase is getting very repetitive, and Benson is not a man who likes to repeat himself endlessly. All of his GRP albums are somewhat weak, semi-commercial efforts made to try and appease ALL fans of his different styles, at the same time. Even "Absolute Benson", with it's many instrumentals, was still watered-down George - afraid to expose his true jazz talent and thereby (he thinks) alienate people who can't handle a guitar playing that fast. George is really paranoid about what would happen if he didn't try to please all of the people all the time, and it's really hurt his oeuvre. Now, in the twilight of his career, it's time to accept the fact that the world doesn't care too much about what he does, which frees him to make the quality music he excels at. Soul jazz, baby! Suggestion for next album title: "BENSON'S BACK!"
By the way, as the reviewer below noted, there are different songs on the Euro version. It's not like the old days when someone made an album and it was what it was, period. Now they shake up albums for different countries, based on sales or predictions or whatever, to maximize their sales. It doesn't matter. Do yourself a favor & forget ANY of the versions ever existed.
Description of Irreplaceable
'Irreplaceable' signals an exciting new direction for George Benson, into contemporary & R'n'B. The urban feel of the album comes courtesy of composer/producer Josh Thompson, whose credits include songwriting & production for Aretha Franklin, Babyface, Tyrese & others. Thompson wrote or co-wrote all of the album's ten tracks & also recruited R'n'B star, Joe to lend a hand with background vocals. The solid groove of Benson's classic sound gets a new lease of life on this exciting new venture. Never was 'Irreplaceable' a more apt title for one of music's all-time greats. GRP/Universal. 2003.With tunes like "Softly as a Morning Sunrise" and "Arizona Sunrise," George Benson has delivered his best pure smooth-jazz jams in many years. Most of the album, however, caters to the urban-contemporary/R&B crowd. Benson is in great voice, often adapting the rapid hip-hop meter used by modern R&B singers like R. Kelly and Joe, the latter of whom co-wrote two tracks here ("Black Rose" and "Missing You"). The only vocal track that comes close to jazz is "Stairway to Love." Benson does some octave picking on his creative instrumental reading of Luther Vandross's "Take You Out," but like much of the rest of the album, the tune was meant for R&B fans. The outstanding vocal talents of Andrea Simmons ("Cell Phone") and Cameroonian Richard Bona ("Strings of Love") also deserve mention. --Mark Ruffin
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