Sentimental Fool is a reunion. Back in the '90s, soul powerhouse
Lee Fields worked extensively with
Gabriel Roth (aka
Bosco Mann) and recorded for the songwriter/producer and bandleader's Desco and Daptone labels. A lengthier period supported by
Leon Michels and Jeff Silverman -- with numerous releases on that duo's Truth & Soul, and then a stint on
Michels' Big Crown -- followed for
Fields thereafter. The singer meets again here with
Roth, who writes and produces everything for his return to Daptone. As a consequence,
Sentimental Fool is a little bluesier and closer to a purist R&B sound, its rhythms strictly old-school -- unlike the
Michels sessions, neither played nor produced with a hip-hop sensibility emphasizing the low end.
Roth outfits the album with piano and organ, horns, and all-male background vocals, and delegates the bass, his main instrument, to the workmanlike Benny Trokan.
Fields sings everything with the expected high level of conviction, covering nearly the gamut of blue-collar soul subjects with devotion and heartache at the fore. His performances elevate the material when it's merely functional. A few of the ballads in the Stax and Hi veins -- opener "Forever," the title song, and especially "Ordinary Lives," lamenting the end of an evidently meaningful dalliance -- stand out most. "Two Jobs," a punchy belter about a taxing relationship, highlights the smaller batch of uptempo numbers. ~ Andy Kellman