***
Previous albums from this neo-soul veteran “lured in listeners” with a “slow, sensual pull,” said Evan Rytlewski in the A.V. Club. Here, Anthony Hamilton simply delivers his “punchiest, most immediate batch of songs yet.” Often compared to such soul greats as Al Green and Otis Redding, Hamilton has an “agile” voice that works in a variety of styles. On Back to Love, he “finds powerful common ground between vintage influences and modern production,” neither chasing trends nor making “a fetish” of retro sounds, said Ernest Hardy in LATimes.com. Highlights include the “Southern-fried, harmonica-and-handclaps-driven” song “Mad”; the “smoldering boudoir” track “I’ll Wait (To Fall in Love)”; and “Baby Girl,” a “moving acknowledgment of women battling countless life obstacles.” Hamilton’s gruff voice makes it all work. While the music industry today is dominated by “male singers who sound like yelping seal pups,” his “gritty emotiveness has the gravitas of weathered adulthood.”
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