P.F. Sloan – Measure Of Pleasure

With the exception of “Secret Agent Man”, nearly all of P.F. Sloan’s best-known songs appear on his mid-’60s Dunhill records. While Songs Of Our Times and Twelve More Times endure as classic folk-rock albums, and “Take Me For What I’m Worth” as first-rate songwriting, Measure Of Pleasure sounds far more modern as a piece of recording than the Dunhill LPs. Produced in 1968 by Tom Dowd and recorded in Muscle Shoals with a band that included Steve Cropper, Measure was overlooked upon its release. Still, Sloan’s rich tenor and controlled falsetto mark him as a completely credible pop-soul singer. “New Design” stands with his best work, and on “Country Woman” he sings, “Everything I could hope for/Is waiting for me down in Tennessee,” and sounds convincing. The idiomatic backing tracks are superb, and Sloan sings as though he needs nothing more than a hot meal and a warm Tennessee woman.