Steve Cropper and The Midnight Hour – Friendlytown: A Review

The word legend is thrown around a lot these days. However, when trying to begin describing who Steve Cropper is, the word Legend seems to be the only one that fits. You want an example? Soul Man by Sam & Dave, “Play it Steve” that’s Steve Cropper….. So let’s go.

The Review

When I review an album, my normal process is to listen to it all the way through once without making any notes. Then I listen to it a second time and this is where I start making notes. Sometimes twice is enough, sometimes I listen more often. I listened to Friendlytown about 4 times.

The album is rich, velvety, thick, and deep, it’s full of the blues. That said, it didn’t ever truly grab me as a complete album. It’s a good collection of songs but for some reason I was just never truly engaged.

As you would expect the musicianship is first-rate. It’s a very clean sounding album and maybe that is part of my problem with it. I like dirty blues, I like to smell the cheap tobacco and feel the sticky floor of some dive bar where the stage is 6 inches above the floor. This album feels too polished, to perfect. I don’t get the sense that they were all in the same room playing at the same time.

Even the addition of Brian May in Too Much Stress can’t grab my attention. It’s just one of those songs that seems to be in the background of my mind. Maybe it’ll come back as an earworm one day, but that isn’t today.

I can’t even say I had a favorite song on the album. I mean they were all okay, good even, they just never went to the next level like I would hope for.

Conclusion

Steve Cropper is a true musical legend, so the fact that he’s still making music in 2024 is something we should all celebrate. However, this album is good just not great. I wasn’t completely engaged throughout.

Score 7/10

Track Listing

1. Friendlytown
2. Too Much Stress (feat Brian May)
3. Hurry Up Sundown
4. Let’s Get Started
5. Talkin’ Bout Politics
6. I’ll Take Tomorrow
7. Lay It On Down
8. You Can’t Refuse (feat Tim Montana)
9. Rain On My Parade
10. There’s Always A Catch
11. In God We Trust
12. Reality Check
13. I Leave You In Peace

Label – Mascot
Release – 23 August 2024

For all things Steve Cropper, click HERE and to purchase the album, click HERE