As reviews of the original release state, this album found Charles continuing to challenge himself, and the songs include classics from the American songbook as well as favourites chosen by his collaborators. The deluxe edition is made up of the original album (and two bonus tracks) plus a DVD with a documentary, The Making of Genius Loves Company. The album has now been re-released to celebrate its tenth anniversary in a two disc deluxe edition (reviewed here), a three-disc limited collectors edition (with the film biopic Ray), and a two-LP vinyl edition. At the time of its release it was considered a “showcase”, and Charles’ passion and sincerity shone through. It was also the first original release through the Starbucks Hear Music imprint in conjunction with Concord Music Group. It’s one of Charles’ most commercially successful albums (over five million copies have been sold) and won eight Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Genius Loves Company was Ray Charles’ last studio album, released only a few months after his death in 2004.
These are just a few of the unfortunate prejudices which come with the territory of the duet album.
This statement may be misjudged and unfair, but critics, those arbiters of taste who many right-thinking individuals fear and loathe, have been known to suggest that some duet albums can cause bouts of extreme nausea though a fatal combination of the syrupy and saccharine. A cynic could say that duets are best left to fading superstars at the end of their careers, and that the target market for the duet album is a forlorn, middle-aged, middle-class, middle-management type who rarely buys music except to sing along to George & Tammy in the car, on their way to fire people like me for writing articles like this. In the drunken karaoke bars of our minds, we should all be singing duets with Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, but for most of us this is inadvisable.
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