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This was the album that began the first true
rebirth of the Bee Gees, a rebirth that
would take them to the top of the world,
make the group multi-millionaires and see
them - in the space of a few short years -
shape the music of a generation. Yet, Mr
Natural was a total commercial flop,
performing no better than the much-maligned
material they had been churning out for the
past few years. So how could this album be
seen as a rebirth? Read on...
At this point in the Bee Gees career, the
group appeared to have lost the support of
both music critics and the general public
alike, with seemingly nothing they released
for the past two to three years making any
sort of impression on the charts. They had
even had an album rejected by their record
company. So their manager, Robert Stigwood,
sent them away to the USA to work with
producer Arif Mardin. With Mardin, the Bee
Gees would explore their love of R&B music -
something that could be detected in their
music in their first album, but which had
all but disappeared through the early 1970s.
They would match these R&B influences with
their ability to write memorable and
innovative pop songs, with marvellous
effect. Mardin encouraged the brothers to
move in the direction of a heavily
black-influenced, urban sound. The album
that resulted, Mr Natural, was a big change
from what had gone before and, perhaps more
importantly, it was very, very good.
Gorgeous ballads like 'Charade' and 'Voices'
sit alongside agile tracks such as 'Throw A
Penny' and the fantastic, inspired single
'Mr Natural'. The album has a vision and a
cohesive sound that carries the listener on
a journey that takes in other influences
such as country & western ('Lost In Your
Love') and US truck rock ('Heavy
Breathing'). Stand-out tracks include the
breathy R&B track 'Down the Road', featuring
one of Barry Gibb's best vocal performances
to date, and the wonderful 'Dogs' - a story
of a homeless person.
There is no question that this is the best
album the Bee Gees had produced since
Odessa in 1969,
yet it was not a commercial success. In
hindsight, it is seen as a warm-up to the
next album,
Main
Course, which would really change
the face of the group (and music) forever,
but at the time it must have been worrying
for the brothers and their record company.
Thankfully, the Gibb brothers and their
investors persevered and the groundwork of
Mr Natural prepared the group for an amazing
transformation.
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Where to Buy
Buy CD (released 1993)
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