The 1970 follow-up to Soul Bag was for the most part a further step away from where
Willie Mitchell had been for the past decade. The sound on
Many Moods is darker, funkier, greasier, and grittier. It's almost sloppy, which gives the record an immediacy virtually nothing he recorded before or since could claim. From the slippery late-night feel of "Breaking Point," with its gorgeous guitar and organ harmonics, to the endgame of "Something Nice," which is far more sexy than nice with its intricately structured horn and guitar lines weaving in and out of one another, the effect was the same: intoxicating groove science. Other standouts include "Sack-O-Woe," "Roadhouse," and "Black Fox." On these tracks what is central is the stretching of time and space through the backbeat, letting it fall just ahead or behind the rest of the band, as horn lines,
Booker T.'s organ, and
Steve Cropper's guitar took their places laying out the groove and punching it up with fills and flourishes. There are two quizzical places on this album that makes one wonder if the tracks were brought in from an earlier session just to fill out side two: "White Silver Sands" and "Midnight Sun" are both drenched in that sweet, shimmering sheen that most of
Mitchell's earlier records had, marring what would have been a perfect release. But it's of little consequence, since what is strong here -- the vast majority of the album -- is a revelation. ~ Thom Jurek