There’s always been just a touch of evil in Aaron Neville’s fluttery love-man vibrato, which serves him well on this back-to-church move. After all, the earthiest gospel doesn’t just let you glimpse heaven above, it reminds you about hell below. I Know I’ve Been Changed courses with undercurrents of struggle, as Allen Toussaint’s piano accents Neville’s voice in subtle, spare arrangements (thank the restrained caress of producer Joe Henry). “Don’t let the devil ride,” Neville warns in that unmistakable croon–and you get the feeling that the man knows the destination.
