Pain In My Heart

180 gram vinyl. Pain In My Heart was Otis Redding's first LP, recorded at various sessions between 1962 and 1964, an issued by Stax Records in January, 1964. And it's a great one, a must-have, really, for fans of classic deep soul music. Otis Redding, at about 22 years of age, sounds a bit more restrained than on subsequent albums, and he relies rather heavily on covers, but this is far from a sugary pop record. Stax was a soul label, and nobody tried to make Redding into a mainstream pop singer. He may not let loose quite as much as he would a couple of years later, but there is no mistaking the hoarse, gritty, powerful voice, and the arrangements are pure tough soul.