Stay around

"Remarkably tasty leftovers ... This collection of new material was pulled together by his wife, Christine Lakeland, and longtime manager, Mike Kappus, from finished tracks that didn't make it to record at the time; it was, apparently, Cale's practice to always record more than was required.The music, all typically whispered vocals and subdued but with fluent guitar notes, hangs together really well. Lights Down Low kicks off proceedings with that chugging bluesy rhythm that was one of his signatures. Other similar efforts follow as well as acoustic demo-like tracks such as If We Try. Given that all 15 tracks are in effect leftovers, they are remarkably good. The album is helped by the fact that Cale's music has a timeless feel".

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"In 2007, six years before his death, Time Life issued Rewind: Unreleased Recordings, a mixed bag of outtakes, demos, and other material - some of it not up to John Cale's usual standards. Six years after his passing, songwriter, singer, and widow Christine Lakeland and manager Mike Kappus deliver Stay Around, a 15-track set of unreleased material drawn from the whole of Cale's career. Unlike Rewind, however, these cuts were sitting in the vault, mixed, mastered, and finished ... Stay Around is free of filler. It is so consistently fine, it is the great unreleased Cale album. For fans this is the holy grail, but it's also an excellent introduction for the uninitiated. Not to be greedy, but let's hope this is not a one-off. We can never have too much J.J. Cale.".

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"Fornemmelsen af tidløshed bliver ikke mindre nu, hvor Cales enke Christine Lakeland Cale, der selv er musiker, sammen med Cales mangeårige ven og manager Mike Kappus har strikket et posthumt album sammen ... 'Stay Around' afslører ikke nye overraskende sider af J. J. Cale, men det ville også næsten være dårlig stil ... Til gengæld er de 15 udvalgte numre forbløffende konsistente. Der er tale om udpluk fra sange, der af den ene eller den anden grund igennem årene ikke kom med på J. J. Cales plader. Der er ikke tale om skitser, men om sange, som var helt eller næsten færdigproducerede til udgivelse af Cale. Lutter ting, der ikke har været ude før ... et af hans mest substantielle album længe".

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