Ray Charles - Come Live With Me

Come Live With Me finds Ray Charles in reflective, romantic form on his 1974 album, pressed here on bright orange vinyl.

By the 1970s Charles had nothing left to prove. He had already fused gospel, blues and jazz into soul, crossed into country music and taken control of his own recordings, and this record came out on Crossover, the label he founded in the early 1970s. Free to follow his instincts, he made a warm, grown-up album of ballads and standards delivered with the authority of a man who had lived every line.

"Till There Was You", the show tune from The Music Man, becomes a tender, slow-burning confession, and his reading of "If You Go Away", the English version of Jacques Brel's devastating ballad, is a lesson in restraint. The title track "Come Live With Me" carries the gentle, open-hearted mood that sits at the centre of the record.

Throughout, that voice does the heavy lifting, cracking and soaring as each song demands, with arrangements that frame him beautifully without ever crowding him.

Often overlooked next to his 1950s and 1960s landmarks, it is a rewarding find for soul collectors, and the orange vinyl makes it a bright, warm addition to the shelf.