Nursing a particularly virulent hangover while driving the 25 minutes to work this morning, I was aided, mercifully, by the undulating grooves and massaging melodies of the new Al Green album, Lay it Down. This one’s produced by ?uestlove and has a lush retro-soul flavor. I’m going to review the disc in greater detail in an upcoming issue of the Loaf, but just wanted to alert y’alls — especially those of you who may be nursing virulent hangovers.

This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...