During the four-year stretch from 1972 to 1975, Al Green ruled the U.S. R&B charts with six consecutive number one albums.

“Al Green Is Love” represents the end of that run, and it contains some of his best work. It is certainly his most diverse album. For almost the entirety of his career, Green maintained a specific style, singing love songs with a restrained energy that seduced his audience into submission. The consistency of his work was astounding, and this album doesn’t break too far from that formula, but it does add a bit of spice to the mix.

He and his extraordinary producer Willie Mitchell wrote (or co-wrote) all the songs here, skipping their usual tendency to add one or two familiar cover songs. As usual, love reigns supreme, but the scope of their subject stretches out significantly. “L-O-V-E” is upbeat and positive-minded, as is ”Oh Me Oh My”. At the other end of the spectrum are speculative songs like “Could I Be the One” and “I Wish You Were Here”. “I Didn’t Know” is the pre-requisite slow 6/8 tune that populates every album, but it is far more ruminative than their usual fare. Most surprising (and rewarding) is “Love Ritual,” a mostly instrumental workout which surely qualifies as the funkiest song of Green’s career. “Al Green Is Love” is very much a ‘classic’ album with a simple theme, but its scope is far more complex and diverse than you may have expected.

Featured tracks:

L-O-V-E (Love)

Rhymes

The Love Sermon

There Is Love

Could I Be the One?

Love Ritual

I Didn't Know

Oh Me, Oh My (Dreams in My Arms)

I Gotta Be More (Take Me Higher)

I Wish You Were Here

August 1975 - Billboard Charted #28