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Critic's Review
Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
A misleadingly titled budget-priced album, The Best of Albert King: Stormy Monday Blues, Chicago 1978 is a medium-quality (at best) recording of a club show from the waning days of King's career. That said, it's not entirely useless. In 1978, after a decade or so spent flirting with the pop music mainstream in an increasingly unsatisfying way, King signed with the tiny Tomato Records label and reapplied himself to the electric Chicago-style blues that had originally made his name. There is no misguided blues-rock on The Best of Albert King: Stormy Monday Blues, Chicago 1978, just a lengthy ten-song set that reaffirms King's inimitable playing. The three songs that creep up around the ten-minute mark, particularly a somewhat leaden take on "Please Come Back to Me," will likely seem ploddingly overblown to all but the most ardent Chicago blues guitar fans. However, on more concise tracks like a fiery take on his signature song, "Born Under a Bad Sign," King's unique tone and always tasteful, economical solos show that he still had much to offer.
