This is a considerably daunting album to review. As I’ve revisited this album, I’ve recognised elements of it in so many different areas. The one that took me the most off guard is the line, “I can’t believe that she don’t want to see me / We lived in love with each other for so long” in the song Hope She’ll Be Happier, which features in James Blake’s Radio Silence. It’s a line that felt familiar to me when I listened to Blake’s The Colour in Anything, but that I couldn’t quite place. It’s wonderful how the words are equally powerful in the two vastly different contexts. The one, a 1971 blend of angst and soul, and the other encased in a haze of electronic sounds and jazz-infused piano. Perhaps this serves as proof of Bill Withers’ incredible capacity to create music that is timeless and transcends the musical trends of his, and our time. What is equally striking about the album is the sheer minimalism of it. The liberal use of tambourine, lead guitar and catchy bass lines come together to create something that is truly impactful. Needless to say, Withers’ voice is the driving force of every song, and it is arguably impossible to find fault with this vocal. Apart from the obvious technical mastery involved in producing such a sound, there is a richness in Withers’ vocal that conveys a wealth of experience and depth that remains unmatched. Withers’ influence is clear in all manner of recent releases. The most obvious being James Blake, and the more subliminal including Hozier, Bon Iver and Jeff Buckley. Withers’ cover of the Beatles’ supremely famous, Let it Be, is evidence of his versatility and Ain’t No Sunshine has far exceeded what I imagine would’ve been its assumed longevity.
So what makes Bill Withers’ music so timeless?
Something that stands out to me as an over-arching theme in Withers’ music is a sense of effortlessness. It’s an album that “sings” whether you put it on shuffle or play through it in its intended order and that is due to the seamless fusion of instrumentation, lyrics and vocals. The music communicates along with Withers’ voice in a way that is somehow both rousing and soothing. The way in which he communicates loss, suffering and the complex, layered events he details speaks to universal human emotions in a beautifully sensitive way.
Withers is not afraid to broach difficult topics such as death and lost love, and his energising musical interpretation of each one speaks to the idea that art is what makes life worth living. Withers’ taps into the things that are common to human beings, regardless of age or era and executes these ideas in a uniquely beautiful and complex way.
It is wonderful to see his influence in the new wave of music and I doubt it’ll be slowing down anytime soon. This album has been with me since an early age (thanks, dad!) and it remains an album that I keep returning to. In short, Just As I Am feels like home.
