Al Green - Have a Good Time (1976) [Reissue 2009]

The final offering from the magical collaboration between Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell, Have a Good Time found the dynamic duo in the midst of a creative crossroads. Green had just purchased a church and was looking to pour his energies into his congregation and his newly appointed title of Reverend. While the message and tones of religion aren't as obvious on Have a Good Time as they were on Full of Fire, they still do make appearances here and there. But it wasn't just a change in Green's life that made Have a Good Time so distinct from the earlier classics; it was also the changing shift in cultural tastes (thanks in no small part to the emergence of disco to the forefront of America's collective dance consciousness). With style shifts and members of a once solid backing band going their own way, the writing on the wall couldn't have been any clearer to both Green and Mitchell. With Have a Good Time they recapture moments of classic collaboration, the wonderful "Nothing Takes the Place of You" being the prime example of how good the two could be when they were in sync.