The first time I heard the (Legendary) Christine Perfect Album, I was startled at how immature her singing seemed when compared to her voice on HEROES and the White album. I thought: "She's not yet there."
But I heard this album BEFORE I heard any of her songs on the first two Chicken Shack albums. When I did explore them, I was startled again--this time to hear her sounding confident and fully-developed as a blues singer. "It's Okay With Me Baby" is first-rate.
Then I returned to the 1970 solo album. I realized the "problem"--if there was one--was its in-betweenness, its transitional nature. She was moving away from the blues but not yet entirely acclimated to rock/pop-rock.
But then maybe her vocals weren't the problem. Maybe I was the one with deficient ears. I had never heard someone singing in this ambiguous space between blues/pop/soul. Whatever the case, when I hear the album now, I am impressed with about half of it. Most of side 2 is excellent--and "I Want You" is all-out sexy. "No Road" holds up as one of her finest songs--both as a performance and in terms of its writing.
Where the record falls short is when she just doesn't go far enough, when her reserve comes off as bland. Case in point: comparing "Crazy 'Bout You Baby" from that record with the live-in-studio version a year later is the difference between day and night. With Mac, she sounds energized and spirited rather than listless.
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