No one should begrudge Aaron Neville’s success. His was a hard-fought campaign to rebound from the “Tell It like It Is” travesty, which found him in possession of a national hit—and in need of a menial job to support himself and his family. He is rightly regarded as one of the most distinctive vocalists of the rock era, capable of conveying deep emotion with a single, fluttering quiver. But mainstream success eluded him and the Neville Brothers until Warm Your Heart in 1991, Aaron’s first solo album in two decades. Since then, he has cashed in on a string of lite pop hits. The dilemma, then, for Neville and his people is how to challenge that remarkable voice and realize its artistic potential while still maintaining commercial viability.
The tracks on Neville’s fourth solo album for A&M, The Tattooed Heart, can be divided into two camps—those meant to serve commercial concerns, and those done to satisfy creative ones. The album’s lead track and first single, “Can’t Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song),” written by professional songsmith Diane Warren, is soulless and breezy, a bit of VH1 schlock as lightweight as any office background music—and thus, it will probably be hugely successful. The Neville/Warren formula has worked before—Warren also wrote “Don’t Take Away My Heaven,” the first single on The Grand Tour.
Much of the first half of The Tattooed Heart seems to have been made with similar motives in mind. Producer Steve Lindsey is at the helm, as he was on The Grand Tour and Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas. He still insists on sugarcoating arrangements with unnecessary baggage, when the most remarkable raw material at his disposable is Neville’s own voice. It was the sparse arrangement on “Arianne,” from 1978’s The Neville Brothers, that made Neville’s voice, and the song, so hauntingly beautiful. By comparison, The Tattooed Heart‘s “Show Some Emotion” is watered down to the point of saturation. And the chorus added to “Every Day of My Life” is unremarkable and a distraction. (Only later, on “Beautiful Night,” is a chorus used appropriately, to buttress Neville’s voice; this track is also the finest moment for Booker T and the MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper, who is undistinctive on much of the record.) If background singers must be used, why not bring in Neville’s brothers? The Tattooed Heart‘s most affecting cut, a cover of Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” is reminiscent of the Neville Brothers’ gorgeous “Yellow Moon.” Cyril Neville supplies the vocal backing for his brother (and Charles Neville’s spooky ’round-midnight sax haunts the track). This token Neville Brothers cut should have been the guide for the whole album.
Three songs were recorded in Nashville (after the success of Neville’s cover of George Jones’ “The Grand Tour” and his Grammy-winning duet with Trisha Yearwood, look for that town to figure prominently in his future), and they are consistently fine. Aaron Neville doesn’t write many songs, but he has come up with some gems (i.e. the title cut of Yellow Moon). His contribution to The Tattooed Heart, the countrified “In Your Eyes” (Neville wrote it 15 years ago; it was burnished recently by songwriter Pamela Hayes), is another good one, a tear-in-my-beer meditation colored with pedal-steel, organ, and mandolin that he signs off on with his trademark vocal curlicue.
The challenge for Neville in the coming years will be to press the edges of the envelope and find engaging material. The photos of Neville pancaked with heavy makeup in the Warm Your Heart booklet have been replaced with shots that have his tattoos—including the crude dagger on his face—clearly on display. He needs to be able to bare more of his internal scars. He’s spoken of doing an album of all spiritual material, or maybe one of vintage doo-wop. These are records that, given his clout, he should be able to make.
