False Accusations

Amazon.com

If not as impressive as Robert Cray's breakthrough recording, Bad Influence, released two years earlier, False Accusations is still a fine album with few missteps. One thing that Cray does very, very well is a blues ballad, something that his soul-inflected vocals and guitar playing suit him for. The result, on this album, is songs like the humorously bittersweet "She's Gone," the determined "The Last Time (I Get Burned Like This)," and "I've Slipped Her Mind," which perfectly captures the mood of the disappointed (but still unrealistically hopeful) suitor. The opener "Porch Light" is a scorcher with a killer bass line, and Cray's guitar on the title track in particular comes through crisp and clean. If a couple of songs (notably "Change of Heart, Change of Mind" and "Playin' in the Dirt") seem a bit lacking in energy, the rest of the CD more than makes up for it. --Genevieve Williams

Review

In his precommercial days Robert Cray meshes up-tempo, syncopated, melodic musical themes with lyrics that examine the darker side of contemporary society. With his smooth vocals and imaginative guitar work, Cray emerges as one of the freshest musical voices of the new generation, predating the equally modern blues that Joe Louis Walker and Kenny Neal parlayed to such success a few years later. (J.T.) -- © Frank John Hadley 1993 -- From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD, ISBN13:B0000005O3 ISBN10:B0000005O3 Material Type:audioCD