Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul

Hot Buttered Soul is a really individual album, it really is bonkers. It’s made up of four tracks, and three of them are covers – but they’re all absurd versions. Track 1 and 4 are ridiculous versions of very well known songs. The opener, ‘Walk on By’ is 12 minutes, with a really drawn-out intro and six minutes of outro. Like AC/DC, Hayes has this mastery of tension. He’s never giving you exactly what you want in a hurry, but it’s coming.

This is especially true with the last track, ‘By the Time I Get To Phoenix’. Of the 18 minutes, only two of it are the actual song, with a crazy intro and outro. He does this thing where the first ten minutes, he recounts the backstory for the famous Jimmy Webb song, over just a sustained organ and drums. When the chorus finally changes, and he finally starts to sing a melody, it’s one of the most satisfying things in the world. A really powerful album, it is the sound of infinity. It is infinite, as they’re playing away you can see the universe before you.