This album comes loaded with some bit of controversy. On the one hand, this was pretty much the last pet project Ray Charles was working on before he passed. The record company has cheesed on a bit about this album being his "last wish" and such.

On the other hand, it is suspect in its genesis, and has been widely attacked, though seemingly mostly just on general principles. Basically, these recordings were mostly made in 1997 and 1998, but half a decade later, Ray came up with the idea of turning these recordings into duets. Recording duets with a dead dude just doesn't sound legit, even if it was his idea.

So then, what to make of the actual album? Actually, it's not half bad. Some of the song selections are marginal, and most of the guests are minor figures not even vaguely in his league. Furthermore, Ray was 40 years past his prime recording this.

Yet still, he was Ray Charles. His voice was great. I wouldn't consider these the most deep and heartfelt performances of his career, but more of a happy footnote. He seemed to be enjoying the making of the record, and it's pretty listenable. I'd rate this higher than most of what I've heard from him in the last 20 years or so, anyway.

I would describe the general style of the album as fairly slick modern radio friendly mainstream r&b. To put it another way, and at the risk of damning the record with faint praise, this would be perfect fodder for a Sunday brunch program on BET.

I've got two main picks on the album that'll be going into rotation. My favorite is probably "Compared to What?" which I know from a 1969 live recording by Les McCann and Eddie Harris at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. Now, of course Ray did jazz, but he brought this forth as more of a simplified pre-funk soul groove here. Playing this for more of a hard soul groove instead of a refined jazz definitely works.

This is a particularly good song, and the lyric looks especially interesting seeing it now on written down. It seems to make some sense when it's sung, but a lot of this social protest looks damned peculiar on the page. Check out verse two, for example:

Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs

Twisted children killin' frogs

Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs

Tired old ladies kissin' dogs

I hate the human love of that stinkin' mutt — I can't use it

Try to make it real compared to what.

At the risk of appearing ignorant, I'd never heard of Leela James before, who is singing the duet, but she gives probably the best guest vocal on the record. She's about the least known name here, but stands there flatfooted and belts this thing out properly. This one is definitely going into iPod rotation for the hiking mix.

The other standout is the Stevie Wonder classic "Blame It On the Sun," recorded with George Michael. This is the best composition on the album, and it seemed to inspire rather more emotional investment from Ray than the other tracks. Also, George Michael is a real singer. His pen has gone dry in recent years, but he was able to sound credible sharing a record with Ray Charles.