Smokey Robinson Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Russell Gersten

Critical Essay by Russell Gersten

Like all Miracles albums of the past 12 years, [One Dozen Roses is] almost all sad love songs, some fast, some slow, with a dance song or two thrown in. Smokey hits the same themes as always—illusion and disillusion, the pain behind the smile—but with greater musical maturity than ever….

What's great about "When I'm Gone," and a lot of the earlier Miracles songs like "The Tracks of My Tears" is how out in the open all the pain and bitterness is. What's exciting about "I Don't Blame You" is the tension. He never comes out and says how hurt he is. You just sense it from the way he tells her not to "hang her head," and from the insistence of his denials….

Smokey gets across his illusion-disillusion theme in a truly sublime fashion.

Russell Gersten, "Records: 'One Dozen Roses'," in Rolling Stone (by Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc....
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