Customer Reviews

Junction Seven

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is ashame when someone of Winwood's talent goes out on a creative limb and get eviscerated for it. I didn't dig this recording for some time after I got it, I must admit. But about two or three years after I picked this CD up, I actually listened to it and found such fully realized funk and soul brought together by some very talented people!! All I can say is give it another non-judgemental listen. I actually think that this recording is less 'pop' sounding that his more successful solo releases such as Roll With It & Back In The High Life.

My faves are SPY IN THE HOUSE..., JUST WANNA HAVE SOME FUN, LET YOUR LOVE COME DOWN (What a soulman!! And the backing vocals work for me!!), FILL ME UP, GOTTA GET BACK TO MY BABY, FAMILY AFFAIR (nice version)& PLENTY LOVE feat. Desiree (I believe this was the only single/minor hit from this CD). Why do artists have to constantly repeat themselves to be honored by fans of no imagination? And when they DO repeat themselves, these same fans tend to complain "been there, done that". I don't get it.

Give this one another try!!!

While I am a big Winwood fan, I'm not above pointing out his less than stellar work, such as Refugees of the Heart, but this is definately not one of them.

Some of Winwood's stuff falls between the rock&roll, r&b, and jazz format lines and never gets picked up. This album has a lot of those type of songs, so it never took off and was even considered a "failure" by some chart-orientated critics. But there are a lot of excellent songs and no duds. You really need to listen to the album as a whole as it is not a "singles" album. After a couple listens, you'll love it. In fact, I was just downloading songs from all my Winwood CDs for my .mp3 collection and I actually took more songs off this album than any other, it's that consistent and album-like.

If you want a Winwood fan album comparison, it's better than Roll With It, Refugees, and his debut but not as good as Arc, Back in the High Life, or Talking Back.

I disagreee strongly with most of the reviews I have read on here about this CD and i really don't understand. I first heard Steve on record on AM radio back in the 60's doing the hit song "Gimme Some Lovin" with the Spencer Davis Group and to this day I am impressed with that performance. Steve has dabbled in various musical styles and groups during his colorful career, but i think he's at this best when he's singing and playing an R@B/blues type of combination music. In other words.....he's great when he gets funky........and he gets funky on this
release in spades. To me it's the best he's ever sounded and played. "Spy in the House of Love" is an instant classic featuring steve on some very tasteful blues guitar licks. And
if "Just Wanna have Some Fun" and if "Fill Me Up" don't get your toes to tapping then you better check to make sure you're still
alive. It's true that there are no 15 minute spaced out jams on
here for those who want to get stoned and slobber all over their
love beads.....but I like it like that. I play this often in my
regular room in Yahoo voice chat and everybody loves it.....so
it's not just me. The production is clear and perfect contray to
what i read on here. I saw him do "Spy in the House of Love" on the Letterman TV show and was so impressed that I immediately bought the CD and wasn't disappointed....to say the least! You won't be either!

Strangely enough some great albums tend to pass by unobserved-this is the case with Winwood's 1997 effort,'Junction Seven'.Outstanding musicianship,tight production,a few guest stars and,most importantly top-notch vocals from Steve Winwood seemingly have not been enough to make this album a hit.Yet it is an excellent opus featuring a great variety of styles,great grooves,and emotion.The closing track,'Lord of the Street'is a Steve Winwood classic.

I'm totally bemused by the poor reviews of this album - it is more poppy but so what - it's a 90's version of Back in the High Life ...the duet with Des'ree on Plenty Lovin' is great; the remake of Family Affair a favourite and Someone Like You is a great love song. If you are critic of Winwood because this doesn't stay with the roots I'm not sure how you could also be a fan of his Grammy winning music in the mid-80's. It also was commercial in nature - as this is. It sounds good, it makes you feel good and the music touches the heart and speaks to you. What more can you want. To the critics - this isn't earth breaking stuff but why must it be - it's music not the bill of rights!!!

This album shows Winwood's versatility, with songs like "Spy in the House of Love", the soft "Real Love", the latin "Gotta get back to my baby." The soul in "Family Affair." This is definitely one of his best solo albums, behind "Back in the high life" and "Roll with it."

I had purchased this used at a record store nearby I had expected something horrible out of this CD from the reviews I had read but I was incorrect this CD is packed with surprises

Winwood collaborates with 3 people in this
Songwriter Narada Michael Walden + Steve's long time friend Jim Capaldi + Steve's Wife Euginia Winwood

This has a mixture of extremely danceable songs + Winwood's nice calming blue eyed soul pop we all know.


When I mean extremly danceable I mean If you listen to the entire album and not feel like you want to dance then there is something wrong with you .


I do recommend you buy this album if you are new to Steve Winwood or if you are a long time listener

This certainly isn't Steve Winwood's best album, not by a long way. But it's not terrible either, and it's definitely better than most of today's pop music.

It does have some genuinely nice songs on it. "Angel Of Mercy" and "Real Love" are nice ballads. I like them both, even though I usually don't care for such songs. "Lord Of The Street" is a pretty good song and it's the one song on here that comes closest to being like Winwood's earlier work back in the mid to late Eighties. And "Plenty Lovin' "...wow. Des'ree's vocals really make this song stand out! It's got kind of a smooth jazz sound and it's one of my favorites here. Other songs on the album are merely okay. "Let Your Love Come Down" would be better if it didn't have the distorted backing vocals. This was tried on a much earlier Winwood tune, "Big Girls Walk Away", from his "Talking Back To The Night" album of the early Eighties. On that song, it sort of worked; on this one, not so much.

Upon my first listen to this album, I was disappointed. I could've given up right then, but I listened some more and it eventually grew on me. If you listen with an open mind, you'll recognize it for what it is: an okay pop album by Steve Winwood, rather than a spectacular one. It was something different for him. Sometimes a musician tries something different and the result is a disastrous, unlistenable album. Fortunately, this one turned out better than that.

When Steve Winwood remarked he was returning to his R&B roots on Junction Seven he came close on many of the tracks. When I got the CD I bought it for Plenty Lovin and at first wasn't really impressed with the other tracks. The more you listen to the CD however you begin to realize that there are some great songs that many people have wrote off as some of Winwood's less impressive work. Spy in the House is a fabulous dance song, Angel of Mercy will take you to church and back, Let Your Love Come Down is pure funk fantasy, Real Love is melodic and haunting and Winwood then turns the heat up with a sassy Latin percussion and full horn section on Fill me up. The CD is almost ten years old and it's one of my favorites that seems as fresh today as it was when it first came out. Steve has won a new cadre of fans in Steppers and skaters as both Plenty Lovin and one of his earlier songs Can I Touch You There are now standards at stepper's sets and in the roller rinks. Give this CD a listen. You too will find it draws you in, catches hold of your soul and won't let you go.

"Junction Seven" sparked considerable controversy among Steve Winwood fans - and yawns among the general public. A clear departure from his late-'80s classics, "Junction" is an artistic and commercial mistep - but not as bad as some claim.

Flashes of brilliance are evident on this release. Funky guitar riffs are the order of the day on "Spy in the House of Love" and "Let Your Love Come Down." The bridge of "Fill Me Up" is Steve at his soulful white-Ray-Charles best. And "Gotta Get Back to My Baby" is an irresistably catchy experiment in soon-to-be trendy Latin rhythms.

However, the smooth jazz production of Narada Michael Walden is "Junction Seven"'s Achilles Heel. The album was originally promoted as a return to Steve Winwood's R&B roots. Unfortunately, the R&B is closer to Whitney Houston than Otis Redding, and closer to Motown than Stax. The otherwise funky "Let Your Love Come Down" is almost ruined by the orgasmic female vocal refrain, the cover of "Family Affair" is just as lifeless as the original, and the album's biggest hit ("Plenty Lovin") was a staple of smooth jazz (not rock) stations. "Junction Seven," in short, is not classic R&B, but an imitation of the slick, predictable pop that is labelled "R&B" today because it's performed by black artists.