Liquid 8
2003
Can't Stop Dreaming
About This Album
Can't Stop Dreaming has a rather tangled release history. It was originally issued in Japan in 1999 on the BMG International label, and in 2003 it appeared in America but missing two tracks. Anyway, as those who witnessed the resurgence of Hall & Oates will attest, Hall has never sounded better. His vocal range is all that it once was and more. He is still, along with his main collaborator, Alan Gorrie from the Average White Band, a talented pop songwriter -- though admittedly pop music itself has changed by its very nature in the early 21st century. Pop itself no longer has a space for what is timeless and dateless. Hall's smooth hooks, tight love songs, and crisp arrangements are timeless but not timely and that's far from his fault. Tracks such as "Cab Driver," with its sheeny Steely Dan feel, and the Marvin Gaye/Leon Ware-inspired "Let Me Be the One" are classic in virtually every way, especially vocally. Hall doesn't reach for notes at all anymore, they just come, flowing up from the pit of his belly like a river expressing itself as a waterfall of intonation and melodic invention most jazz singers would give their eye teeth for. Only Al Green is Hall's equal in the contemporary soul genre.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,5 and 9)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.