John Valenti - Anything you want

In 1976, a drummer from Chicago wrote a bunch of soul tunes and cut a record. The record made it to 51 on the soul charts, and the title track made it to #37. That drummer's name was John Valenti, and honestly, both the single and the album deserved to do better. Fast forward 30 years to a tower records in Shibuya, Tokyo, where I stumbled across this little gem. There was a whole line of CDs represented there, of obscure 70s soul music dug up and reissued by some keen Japanese music nerds. GOD BLESS 'EM! So here's the deal: John Valenti spends a good part of the record doing his god-damndest to channel Stevie Wonder. Yes, he's aiming high. Too high. The beauty of aiming that high though, is that you can fall far short of the goal and still be excellent! The end result is that on his rocket ride to Saturn, his second-stage booster crapped out over the ocean somewhere, and he crash landed on the Love Boat. The arrangements have plenty of funk, but somewhere in the string section, Isaac is pouring drinks. This will probably turn some people off, but I have a soft spot for that kind of cheese. Also, his vocal phrasing is almost identical to the singular Mr. Stevland Morris's. He does a good cover of Jackie Wilson's "Higher and higher", and the only song on the album that sucks is one called "I love her too". It's, uh, wow. It's a song to a wife, admitting his infidelity and calling for a polyamorous arrangement, but he never takes it to its potential as the cocksman anthem it could have been, instead bringing the narrative across as coming from a clueless asshole who never grew up. Maybe it was supposed to be like that, I dunno. But listening to it makes me feel like a girl who just got cheated on. Oh, actually, the song "Save me" isn't very good, either. So I skip 2 of 11 songs. Not too shabby, John Valenti.