Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black

The Quietus

Mavis Staples has been a steadfast presence in American music since the 1960s. Through her decades with the Staple Singers and into her solo career, she’s adjusted her sound and her collaborators to fit the times. Her third collaboration with Jeff Tweedy, If All I Was Was Black, suggests that Staples, now in her late seventies, is perhaps more sensitive to the world around her than ever, and has the right credentials to usher the younger generations through.

The album draws on her years as a proponent of the civil rights movement. She has always proudly reminded her audience of her legacy, and there’s a certain sadness in the fact that the voice that once sang freedom songs for Dr Martin Luther King is now putting her voice behind Black Lives Matter.

The sadness, however, ends there. If All I Was… represents a uniquely American sense of alienation, and while Staples — and Tweedy, who wrote and produced the album — fully acknowledges the feelings of helplessness engendered by a self-serving government and violence in the streets, she refuses to believe that the people really are helpless.

Across the album, there are calls for collective action: to, in the words of Michelle Obama, go high when they go low, to put in the effort to fix things. “People are dying/ bullets are flying/ we’ve got work to do,” she insists on ‘Try Harder’, which rolls like a stripped-back version of Gladys Knight & The Pips’ ‘I’ve Got to Use My Imagination’.

Most striking of all, however, is the radical empathy that fills the album. The title track is just one song in which Staples calls for love and unity even while beseeching some adversary to see her humanity. This isn’t a line of persuasion that just anyone can get away with, but coming from an veteran civil rights activist, it’s pretty damn convincing.

If you are not directly affected by this American state of anxiety, it’s this empathy, frustration and general rallying cries, as well as the arrangements, that broaden the album’s appeal. Tweedy is restrained in his bluesy approach, allowing Staples’s voice to shine through, with support from gospel-style backing vocals on most of the tracks. If the 2015 documentary Mavis! is truly indicative of their relationship, there is a trust between these musicians that is exemplified in Tweedy’s respect for Staples’s legacy. His contemporary Americana twang, flecked with gospel and soul intonations, is a logical progression in their collaboration that feels as current as its message.

One of the great successes of If All I Was… is that it has the same levity as the anthems of the civil rights era. The freedom songs were never just gloom and doom, they were about a goal. Staples continues that same proud tradition of not only defiance but of a persistence borne of faith. She reminds us to be angry at injustice and to love our neighbours as well. Don’t ignore the evil in the world, but don’t lose sight of why you’re fighting against it. We’ve got work to do.

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The Guardian 80

(Anti-Records)

Unlike many protest songs birthed by the political situation in the US, the title track of Mavis Staples’s 16th solo album is bereft of rage. Instead – as with all of the songs on If All I Was Was Black – it replaces mockery and fury with a warm, calm clarity that is soothing and stirring. Staples explains how it feels to be judged by the colour of your skin (and, on other tracks, the effects of police brutality and internalised oppression) with a patience and simplicity that is heartrending. That the songs on the record, which largely deals with race and oppression, were written by a white man could have undercut the emotional heft. (That man being Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, a longtime collaborator of Staples, who soundtracks his words with a weighty marriage of gospel and blues rock.) But Staples has had decades of practice delivering truths as part of the Staple Sisters – who were celebrated for their gospel “message songs” – and her performance here is so utterly convincing it feels like a moot point.

Drowned In Sound 80

If All I Was Was Black was written and produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and this latest record marks a partnership that has now endured over three records. At first glance, their connection might feel like a curious one, but the fellow Chicago residents have already proved their combined value over two excellent long players. And as a musician that operates primarily within rock and Americana Tweedy has demonstrated his ability to work outside of those genres to fine effect. Must like their previous collaborations he’s not afraid to add colour and character with the instrumentation, but it all works in service to the main event: Staples inimitable voice.

In contrast to their previous efforts, If All I Was Was Black is composed of entirely original material, written by Tweedy. The record picks up the tempo from their downcast 2013 collaboration One True Vine, and wears its preoccupations firmly on its sleeve. There’s little doubt that 'We Go High' was inspired by Michelle Obama’s powerful campaign speech in support of Hilary Clinton. And the track stays true to the generosity of her original sentiments, refusing to be drawn into the negativity synonymous with the GOP (“When they tell their lies / spread all their rumours / I know they're still human and they need my love”). This level of positivity runs throughout the album from Build a Bridge’s open-hearted sentiments to the title track's entreaty, “It’s time for more love.”

In any other hands, the record’s magnanimity could be in danger of being more than most could stomach given the cruelty of the Trump administration, but Staples offers a sage viewpoint that crushes hot-headed anger, and the themes aren’t built on hippy idealism, but hard-earned experience. Equally, the sass of 'Who Told You That' reveals the intimidating, not-to-be-messed-with side of her vocal that was employed to great effect on the Arcade Fire single 'You Got The Power'.

Tune-wise, there’s no obvious stand-out, and the record is best experienced as a whole whereby its message is most complete. In many respects this is the strength of Tweedy’s writing and production in that he has resisted over-baked sloganeering and fussy arrangements, opting instead for finely drawn narrative and a sympathetic musicality. Its power builds slowly, steadily and compellingly. It's sensitive to Staples core sound, whilst feeling entirely contemporary, from the lean groove of 'Little Bit' to the chugging guitar-led rhythms of 'Try Harder'.

Just a couple years shy of 80, Staples once again proves herself an essential force; having been musically active since the Fifties her continued vitality is astonishing. Her voice has grown even more commanding with time, and it’s nigh on impossible to refuse her entreaties. If All I Was Was Black contains performances as powerful as any she has given. Staples is at her most soul-stirring on the wistfully brief sign-off 'All Over Again,' on which she hauntingly rasps, “with the stars all closing in / I set out on the old ocean”. Overall though her tireless positivity reigns, and it’s a potent reality check for those feeling fatigued at the general shit-show expressed daily through the media. For those Staples has a message - “No time for crying / We’ve got work to do.”

The Guardian 80

(Anti-)

Related: Mavis Staples: ‘I often think what would have happened if I’d married Dylan’

With gospel legends the Staple Singers, Mavis Staples was wailing anthems of pride and defiance back in the civil rights era. For her third collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Staples eschews standards and revivals in favour of 10 new songs by Tweedy that form a state of the nation address. It’s no angry rant, however. Love is Staples’s weapon of choice, and “We go high when they go low” its credo. Musically it’s a fascinating, low-key meld of 70s funk, gospel choruses and wonky rock guitar. Build a Bridge swells with Prince-like melody, No Time for Crying is stark and serious, and Peaceful Dream a gospel singalong. Inspirational work.

Pitchfork 76

Mavis Staples presents her signature hope on the taut and lively If All I Was Was Black, another collaboration with Jeff Tweedy. But it doesn’t come as naturally as it once did, as she makes clear.