Description
Love Life is the fourth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Charlie Peacock, released on Sparrow Records in October 1991. The album was recorded and mixed during the Summer and Fall of 1991 by Rick Will at Sixteenth Avenue Sound in Nashville, Tennessee; with Charlie Peacock and Will producing. All songs written by Charlie Peacock.
Featuring Peacock on lead vocals and various keyboards with Roger Smith sitting in on Hammond B-3 organ and clavinet, former Vector bandmate Jimmy Abegg and producer Rick Will on guitars, as well as a rhythm section consisting of bassist Tommy Sims (White Heart) and drummer Aaron Smith (The 77s). Backing vocals provided by Vicki Hampton, Kim Fleming, Stephanie Will, and Vince Ebo.
Charlie Peacock dedicated this album to his wife. (“Love Life is dedicated to you Andi, my best friend, my lover, my wife. You’ve been a patient teacher regarding the ways of a woman, the path of honesty and the things of the heart. Thank you again and again.“) Peacock’s ten songs about love and life run the gamut from pleasant commercial pop, to romping Gospel, funky soul and progressive jazz. The tension created by comparing and contrasting the spiritual and sexual realities that are consistently intertwined in human relationships and how it compares to our relationship with God is wonderfully conceived and Biblically firm.
If Charlie Peacock’s Sparrow debut last year, ‘The Secret of Time‘, was primarily a “refreshing for the saints,” ‘Love Life’s reflections on relationships – vertical, horizontal and insular (one must deal with self) – are as much for the rest of the world as they are for the Body of Christ.
As such, it is a thematic return of sorts for Peacock. Longtime followers will recall the expositions and confessions of ‘Lie Down in the Grass‘ as a referance point. The difference come in Peacock’s reassessments of is life eight years later that, like all our lives, has had as many ups as it’s had downs, including a degree of international success unforeseeable then. And oh yes, parts of this are jamming enough to peel the varnish off your dancing shoes.
Dancing is what you might start off doing to the openers «After Loving You» and «What’s It Like in Your World», both reflecting that time in the early ’70s when soul, funk and disco were briefly at peace with one another. «After» is a moral love tune in the vein of his co-writing of Amy Grant’s «Every Heartbeat», while the latter is rousing but gentle empathy to strangers in his life.
This segues naturally enough into one of Peacock’s interpretations of black gospel fervor in «Forgiveness». In other forays into “foreign” music, he isn’t quite so masterful. The Johnny Clegg-inspired South Afro-pop of «In the Light» is musically inventive, but lyrically just standard-issue contemporary Christian music from someone who conjures higher expectations. «I Would Go Crazy»’s Latin jazz mannerisms find Peacock straining his repertoire just a mite.
Better musically and more substantive emotionally is the jazz Brazilia of «Another Woman in Tears», a virtual public apology from a husband too often gone. The flipside to this sorrow is «Kiss Me Like a Woman», wherein the same husband boldly states the beauty of a married couple’s sexual expression.
From «Kiss»’s high-octane sweat factor, the album concludes on low-key praise and expectation of afterlife in «When I Stand With You», an exploration of late-period Beatles textures expanded upon from «There was Love» and «Personal Revolution», from earlier in the set.
With only a couple of miscues, ‘Love Life’ finds Charlie Peacock expanding the emotional vocabulary of contemporary Christian musicianship, making an album danceable and soulful enough for those who might not share his faith; honest and forthright enough with that faith to not be misunderstood by the saints. You can respect that, can’t you? [Jamie Lee Rake, CCM, December 1991]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/love-life/715749114)
CD tracklist:
01. After Lovin’ You – 4:51
02. What’s It Like In Your World? – 4:30
03. Forgiveness – 4:55
04. Personal Revolution – 5:12
05. Another Woman In Tears – 7:45
06. In The Light – 3:42
07. There Was Love – 3:18
08. I Would Go Crazy – 4:01
09. Kiss Me Like A Woman – 3:31
10. When I Stand With You – 5:19
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Sparrow Records.
The December 1991 issue of CCM Magazine featured a cover story on Charlie Peacock.
A full-page advertisement for Charlie Peacock’s Love Life was featured in the November 1991 issue of CCM Magazine.
CREDITS. Produced by Charlie Peacock and Rick Will. Recorded and Mixed by Rick Will assisted by Graham Lewis. Engineering/Production Assistance by Craig Hansen. Additional Engineering by Bryan Lenox, Graham Lewis and Dan Rudin. Assistant Engineers: Jay Swartzendruber, Jason Garner, Garrett Rockey. Tracked and mixed at Sixteenth Avenue Sound, Nashville, TN. Overdubs recorded at Kaleidoscope Sound, Bellevue, TN. Mastered by Ken Love at Mastermix, Nashville, TN. Rhythm Arrangement on track 1, 8 and 9 by Peacock and Tommy Sims. Vocal Arrangement on track 3 and 6 by Peacock and Vince Ebo. String Orchestration on track 7 by Peacock and Kris Wilkinson. Song Arrangement on track 10 by Peacock and Jimmy Abegg. Orchestration on track 10 by Peacock. All songs written by Charlie Peacock. Art Direction by Heather Horne. Design by Tom Bonauro. Photography by Frank Ochenfels. Executive Producer: Peter York.
Musicians: Charlie Peacock (Lead Vocals, Fender Rhodes on track 1, Piano – Tracks: 2,3,7,8,9,10, Keyboards – Tracks: 2,4,5,6,9, Synthesizer 808 on track 3, Wurlitzer Piano Solo on track 4, Trumpet on track 5, Bass on track 6 and 8, Percussion – Tracks: 2,4,5), Roger Smith (Keyboard Solo on track 1, Organ on track 3, Piano on track 5 and 8, Clavinet on track 9), Marianne Osiel (Oboe on track 5), Mark Douthit (Saxophone on track 8), Mike Haynes (Trumpet on track 8), Rick Will (Schpaghetti Guitar on track 1, Guitar Solo on track 2, Space Guitar on track 6, Les Paul Guitar on track 9, Guitar on track 10), Jimmy Abegg (Wah Guitar on track 1, Clean Guitar on track 2, Acoustic Guitar on track 6, Guitar on track 7, Wah and Clean Guitar on track 9), Scott Denté (Guitar on track 4) Tommy Sims (Bass – Tracks: 1,2,3,5,7,8,9,10, Percussion – Tracks: 1,6,8,9, Keyboards on track 1 and 9), Aaron Smith (Drums – Tracks: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9, Cymbals and Brushes on track 4, Percussion on track 6 and 8, Timbales on track 8), Craig Hansen (Percussion on track 5). Strings (Track 7 and 10): The Nashville String Machine – Kris Wilkinson (Viola), Carl Gorodetzky (Violin), Pam Sixfin (Violin), Bob Mason (Cello). Backing Vocals: Vicki Hampton (Tracks: 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10), Vince Ebo (Tracks: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9, Lead Vocals on track 4), Bob Carlisle (Track 2), Kim Fleming (Tracks: 3,7,8,9), Stephanie Will (Tracks: 3,7,8,9, Personal Voice on track 4). Spanish Vocalizing on track 8 by Diana Beach.
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