The Healer

I really enjoyed that. I only know one or two famous songs by JL Hooker, so I have nothing to compare this collection, but I very much enjoyed listening to it.

VERY high 4 god i need to listen to Blues way more often this was brilliant.

Solid album that is a bit too heavy on collabs. Still a fun time overall

Love JLH voice, this brings back memories when I was into him in the 1980s, can’t remember how, but must’ve been from a fi score, so I have several Hooker albums, this doesn’t disappoint- excellent collaborations, loved it.

Bluesy, so good 5/5 Also listened to Diamond Life by Sade for Kate

This kind of feels like if we got collaborator Carlos Santana’s Supernatural instead of one of his other albums but, album list griping very briefly aside, this was great.

I was interested in listening to this album today. I recall when it came out, as it was pushed pretty hard in music magazines like Rolling Stone. There was an attempt to bring back the blues after artists like Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt were having hit records. I don't recall it being super successful, but I'd imagine these old blues musicians were getting more radio play than they had in years regardless. My takeaway is that the songs with guest musicians ended up sounding more like songs by said guest musicians, to good and not so good effect. I loved I'm In the Mood, and liked Think Twice Before You Go, but the other five were a mixed bag. These songs also sounded very 80's polished, which is not how I want my blues to sound. On the other hand, I loved the last three songs where it was Hooker with either his guitar or minimal accompaniment. And not a whole lot of sheen to the production either. It left me feeling like the album would have been significantly better with just a couple of guests and much more John Lee Hooker.

Enjoyed - decent bluesy tunes

Good album, I’m glad I heard it, probably won’t go back and revisit it tbh. 3 star

i generally am not a fan of these "and friends" collab-type albums and this is no exception. surely he has an album in the prime of his career that would be a more worthy inclusion than this? "burnin'" has "boom boom" for chissakes.

Not a gigantic fan of the blues in general, but I enjoyed. Strongest songs were not the collaborations but the solo pieces. Would have been a 4 or 5 likely of all John Lee Hooker by himself.

The Healer is a classic blues album by a much older John Lee Hooker. It’s obvious that Hooker is an incredibly talented artist, that with this album finally got the industry recognition he deserved, but this brand of traditional blues just isn’t really for me. I can maybe respect it, but don’t think I would want to come back. 5/10 HIGHLIGHTS: I’m In The Mood Sally Mae My Dream

Great music, an album with instant classics

Surely there can’t be anymore blues music left in this project, oh my days

Uneven but really good at its best

Wish I could say I dig on late era John Lee Hooker more than I do.

What a fricking cool album!

Nice and bluesy

Smooooth

3.0

550 albums in. This is the first album I have not heard of that I actually loved. And shame on me for not knowing about this before. The legend John Lee Hooker with amazing guests for seven songs. Some sweet blues throughout. 4.0

If I was a blues fan I'd probably love this, it sounds nice but is probably meant for a certain kind of person in a certain setting

3.4 Solid blues album. I was kinda hating to start- seemed just unremarkable, but by track 2 or 3 I was howling out right along with him. So that bumped up my rating a bit.

Instrumentals evoke instructional vhs tapes for aspiring fusion noodlers.

Buena sorpresa

I mean, boring, compared to many blues albums, but I love Bonnie Raitt.

His guitar tone is quite the spectacle and sounds awesome, but I just don't vibe with blues music. I don't like the same chord progressions in every single song, I don't like the noodling.

Some great blues.

good solid the blues

First and foremost I like how he looks like a frog on the album cover. Secondarily, I really enjoyed the music. A really solid blues album, and the collaborations keep the sound varied. Taking one star off because it didn't sound like a cohesive album to me - more a collection of good songs performed and produced separately.

645/1089 - I only liked the first song. Blues makes me snooze.

This is a solid blues album with a lot of really strong tracks. He has a great voice and it's so smooth and charismatic. I like the collaboration of styles across the album. This is a very easy album to enjoy. And the band is really doing their own thing and just having fun. Solid stuff. Fav Track: The Healer

Favorite Track: Cuttin Out

i like some bluesrock but this one didn't really get me

60

i really love ir

Slow blues music that wasn't my thing. The song with Santana was the highlight of the whole album.

3 ig

Sounds like bland blues by a token band at a corporate event. Unfortunately this falls into the category of “if you’ve heard three or four blues songs, you’ve heard them all.” Boring, repetitive, predictable blues music. John Lee Hooker is a seminal figure in the blues/music. This is not the album to showcase a man who at that point had been making music for forty years. Last track brings this snoozer to two stars, as it’s the only song here that does not sound like stock footage blues.

Now you see, this album is one of those rare gems that keeps me plowing through the scores of absolute rubbish on this list. Every once in a while you stumble across an album like this one that just touches your soul. A testament to greatness. Ten stars.

The Healer

Effortlessly cool. Went down well on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Day1017 - some great blues and we get los lobos and bonnie raitt

Blues is another blind spot of mine. I really enjoyed this.

Found this ok. Probably would have liked it more if it wasn’t a collaboration album and even more if Santana wasn’t the first collaboration.

Solid blues album.

A Blues legend finally getting paid AND getting the long overdue recognition he deserved. Hope I sound that good when I'm 73.

Late 80s blues rock. Silky smooth and sexy.

This album is all fine but even at release, I feel it must've seemed a bit dated.

I know the man is a blues legend, but this cannot be his best work.

Ok

The Healer: I didn’t realize there were all these collaborators at first and thought “wow he really sounds like Santana!”. I like the Bonnie Rait and Robert Cray ones too. Whole album was cool. 4? 5? 4.5 Solid album it’s better than Simply Red and I enjoyed it more consistently than Neil Young but it’s not like Headhunters or Songs in Key of life good.

Super solid album. Bonnie raitt tune was a nice surprise! Not something id listen to often but really good solid blues. 4.5

Bonnie and Santana? A++++

This was a pretty cool album to check out, but to be honest, I’ll probably never come back to it because blues is one of those styles of music that’s never really appealed to me all that much, especially this particular type of blues. But I can still appreciate the album for what it is.

Te veel van hetzelfde. Niet echt wat ik zoek in het leven.

I'm tempted to bump this rating a bit higher as a stand-in for something more significant from John Lee Hooker's career but this is the album we were given

Very samey and a bit depressing really

Disappointing. JLH has one of the best voices in blues, but this showcases him in the wrong way. The opening track with its Sade-style 80s production is AWFUL. It does get a little better, but I spent the whole thing longing for a proper acoustic blues recording. An absolute missed opportunity - even some of the better guests don't add much of note. Scrapes a 2.

Love the blues and Bonnie Rait is a guest on I’m I the mood

Aight

i have learned that i actually tend to enjoy blues

80s blues - weird combo but i liked it. had a headache so was a little zoned out but there's much worse music to have a headache to

John Lee Hooker was an Blues Icon and this is a late career album. While there is some good John Lee Hooker here, much of the album features collaborators, who frequently turned it into there thing with John Lee Hooker providing background. I much preferred his solo stuff, the last three songs, to the collaborations.

Something felt off as soon as I started reading. It's a blues album, I know the name John Lee Hooker, but it's from the late '80s. The era doesn't feel right for a must-listen blues album, but then we've got the title track starting the album off with Santana and his band. Does it feel like blues? Barely. It has enough Santana flavor to make the track work, though, and frankly it only makes me want to listen to Smooth. In fact, some 10 years later Santana pulls of Supernatural with an idea real similar to this album, use other artists to freshen up your sound, and it'd make all the sense in the world to me that the inspiration came from this album. It ends with three solo pieces, but by then your ears have been primed for another type of production quality. It makes for a shaky ending. As expected, the blues element is faded and washed here, buried under decades of production techniques that strip the essence of the sound. I can understand it being mildly successful for a few years after its release because there's not many other blues artists competing for the top spot, but outside of "fresh new blues" this album doesn't hold itself up as well as other older classics. I'm sure John Lee himself has better technically fulfilling albums. It's not bad, I'm just never going to listen to this again. 2.75/5

nice bluesy vibes. enjoyed

Gorgeous Blues Soul of the second era

I like this kind of blues in moderation

Ok...a blues album from 1989 with a lot of guests? Interesting... Anyway, it's alright blues music. There's some cool guitar bits on some of the tracks, but much of it isn't that interesting. I don't feel like the guests on most of the songs add anything significant to any of them. Also, this probably isn't the greatest representation of John Lee Hooker or blues music in general. It's ok, but nothing special. This album is ranked #10 of 26 albums for 1989. Other 1989 albums rated by me: Disintegration(1/26)-5 Doolittle(2/26)-5 The Stone Roses(3/26)-3 Like a Prayer(6/26)-3 Done by the Forces of Nature(12/26)-4 Rhythm Nation 1814(13/26)-3 Let Love Rule(14/26)-2 Fromohio(15/26)-2 Nick of Time(17/26)-2 Djam Leelii(19/26)-4 Moss Side Story(24/26)-2

This feels unfair. A grizzled old bluesman who was in his pomp in the 60s and 70s, but they've decided to represent him with this late 80s selection of so-so collabs. I wish it did more for me because he's influential and I love blues guitar. But I found it a bit of an uninspiring listen that doesn't really showcase Hooker as well as I'd like alongside the other names featured.

Fine

Very good, an enjoyable listen. Good back story too!

Tidvis litt kult. Tidvis litt cheese. Alltid litt kjedelig.

Utgangspunktet er ganske fett, men 80-tallsproduksjonen ødelegger alt.

dark dark deep blues. usually not my cup of tea, but i like his voice as well as how the instruments sound. i wouldn't go through a whole album, but listening to a few songs from time to time? why not.

Including this is a travesty. John Lee Hooker is a blues legend, so why choose a tinny 1980s album with collabs over any of his more substantial work?

pretty good

The blues, man... sonically, amazing. Lyrically and spiritually, depressing af.

The best way to honor an elder statesman of amped blues would probably be to pick one of his golden-era albums instead of a late-era mishmash of collaborations, but the cover is pretty cool

I really enjoyed this.

Kinda cool to hear a multitude of bands record with Hooker. But it mostly sounds like these performers doing their thing with a JLH guest appearance. Fairly dull, really. And why does he sound like he recorded his vocals in a parking garage?

Yep. 4

wiso würmer es john lee hooker album vode 80er do druf tue hahaha. santana??? hahahaha ich finds huuuuere asss. santana nonie ganz checkt und de sappy 80er sound mit ihm zeme und de hooker wo chli blues umejommeret isch jo würkli nöd mol so guet. sally mae tönt endlich so wie er tönt. nöd grossi band mit keys bullshit. er, giratte, en fuess macht d drums. fuesball

eventuell muss ich jz zerst es album vo primal fear lose, will det druff s lied the healer isch, wo als chind e ziit lang mis lieblingslied gsi isch MMMHHHH DE GUITAR-TONE ISCH HOTTTT hmm sehr es neus album für sini verhältnis sini stimm isch krass hahahah I'm in the mood isch no cool mitem hii und her vode bonnie raitt undem hooker aber joaa omg canned heat!!! scho lang nümme ah sie denkt hmm jaa schlecht isches nöd (glaub für mich muss seehr vill falsch laufe, dass ich blues je schlecht find) aber meh als es 3 gits glaub nöd

Not terrible but not the best. Low 3.

Probably heard his work before, and there may be better stuff out there. However, for such a highly praised Blues artist (going by what reviews I read) I expected more. 993/1001

3.5 C'est sympa mais pas memorable

Top. C'est 4.5

Glitzy 80s production effectively neuters a blues icon and creates a dry snoozefest that the guests do little to assist on (Besides maybe Los Lobos- but that just makes me want to listen to them). Disappointing

One day I will become the man I am meant to be, and fall in love with a blues album. Today is not that day.

Good

Decent listen.

Great guitar sound. The rough voice works really well with it. Nice blues album.

I’m not a huge blues fan, but this was pretty dern good. I’m healed!

This was a nice relaxed blues album. I enjoyed it a lot. I have a hard time judging blues and its quality, but I know I really enjoyed my listen through this one and just really vibed.

I think if you were to ask me which album to recommend if you wanted to get into blues, I'd recommend this one. And even though he sometimes would just keep repeating himself (repeating himself) it's very good, and I enjoyed every second of it (every second of it).

Listening to this got me on a blues listening spree. Great guitar, excellent singing, and top-tier collabs (especially the Santana song). It shows the range of different songs you can create within the seemingly simple blues framework.

lovely album! the first song the healer made it on the playlist!

Blues. That’s all there’s to it, nothing really stood out for me but it’s damn fine blues album. The vibes are immaculate. Gets a little bit boring though after a while, a little monotonous, so there’s that.

Listening session: september 18th, while getting ready in the morning Listened to before: no Thoughts: I’m not a blues lover so this was really boring to me Favourite track: The Healer