The Best Is Yet to Come (Bobby Womack album)

The Best is Yet to Come
Studio album by Bobby Womack
Recorded 2013-14
Genre R&B, soul, neo soul, electronica, blues, gospel
Label XL
Producer Damon Albarn, Calvin Broadus, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Isley, Riley King, Kwes, Stevland Morris, Harold Payne, Richard Russell, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Womack,
Bobby Womack chronology

The Bravest Man in the Universe
(2012)		 The Best is Yet to Come
(2015)

The Best is Yet to Come is the upcoming posthumous twenty-eighth and final studio album by the American soul artist Bobby Womack. The album was originally titled Living in the House of Blues, but was changed to The Best is Yet to Come. The album has been described by Womack as: "...a labor of love" entitled The Best Is Yet To Come. The album will feature an array of legendary guests, including the late Gerald Levert and Teena Marie, Rod Stewart, Damon Albarn, Stevie Wonder, Ronald Isley and Snoop Dogg. The collection will include “Lefthanded Upside Down,” a new autobiographical song about Womack’s early days learning to play his instrument.

Background

The Bravest Man in the Universe, was released on June 12, 2012 by XL Recordings of London. The album was produced by Damon Albarn and Richard Russell. The first song "Please Forgive My Heart" was offered as a free download on XL Recordings' official website on March 8, 2012.[1] Contact Music reported that Womack was working on a blues album, called Living in the House of Blues, featuring collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg and Rod Stewart.[2] In an interview with Uncut, Womack revealed that the followup is now called The Best is Yet to Come and also features Teena Marie and Ronnie Isley, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood and B.B. King.[3][4]

According to Womack's online biography the basic tracks were recorded at two studios in Los Angeles, including that of guitarist Michael Thompson, who plays throughout the recording. Among the recorded collection, includes a revamp of two Womack classics: “I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much” (his final Top 10 R&B single), which the singer says he “changed to another pocket, to give it a face lift”; and “One More Chance on Love” from his 1976 album "Home Is Where The Heart Is". The project also features covers of Seals & Croft’s AC staple “Diamond Girl” Johnny Taylor’s “Cheaper to Keep Her” and the poignant “The Sun Died” a somewhat obscure Ray Charles song that Womack would often listen to with Barbara Campbell, Sam Cooke’s widow who later became Womack’s wife. New Womack songs on “Jealous Love” “Let Me Kiss It Where It Hurts”.[4][5]

Womack gave an interview to English newspaper The Guardian and said: "I told Damon and Richard that whenever they're available to record I will make myself available," Womack said. "But I was already working on a new album, I have Stevie Wonder on it, I have Rod Stewart, Levert, Snoop Dogg is on it, this lady from Motown – now what was her name?" And it's not just Wonder making a tiny cameo: there are apparently "a lot of songs where you hear Stevie Wonder singing the song and you hear me on the same song". He compared it to "Sam Cooke and Ray Charles … You don't get that style anymore."[6]

Though little is known about the record as a whole, Womack has mentioned it many times in interviews. When speaking to Blues & Soul he said:

It's going back to basic's - I think the thing that has changed in this business is there is more high-tech equipment, that will now cost me $100,000-$150,000 to cut an album. I can cut an album for $15,000 Dollars and you'd swear that is was cut in one of the high-tech studios. So I see the difference between quality and quantity and that will never change. You see a person driving in a Rose Royce would you take notice? If you see another person in a Rose Royce and they think they're better than anybody else I say "it's not because it's a Rose Royce, it's because it's you!" You look like a fool behind the wheel if you act like one!! People drive a Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce don't drive them, that the big difference! That's when I see people pretending and pretending, and I say "you ain't got shit when I met ya, you aint got shit now!" That's when I get people coming up to me saying "yeah man, I can make you a star!" I say, "I've been an old star." I say, "stars fall from the sky and when they hit the ground they turn into a rock! And a rock ain't no good unless you throw it at somebody!"[7]

Songs recorded

References