Tag: Soul
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Nina Simone ‘Wild Is The Wind’ (1966)
When I first heard Wild Is The Wind it caught me completely off-guard. It was a beautiful summer morning in sunny Northern California, I was driving the kids to daycare, and they were in an exceptionally good mood giggling in the backseat. I was feeling inspired after a night out where I met about 30…
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Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats ‘Self-Titled’ (2015)
I’ve mentioned before my love for Nathaniel Rateliff and his booming baritone and why it’s made him one of my most beloved contemporary singers. His solo album And It’s Still Alright from 2020 was a pivotal pandemic album for me that helped get through all the wild ass confusion that swallowed us all during that…
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James Brown ‘Live At the Apollo’ (1963)
For decades James Brown was America’s preeminent showman and The Apollo Theater in Harlem was America’s preeminent live music venue. It’s only natural that these would come together in the fall of 1962 for Brown’s first live album and the first live album ever recorded at the Apollo. It’s soul dynamite packed into a tidy…
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The War and Treaty ‘Healing Tide’ (2018)
The War and Treaty is a a wife-husband duo comprised of Tanya Trotter and Michael Trotter Jr. Their debut album Healing Tide is a wonderful throwback to traditional country music with elements of Memphis soul and blues music blended into their sound. The vocal performance of Tanya and Michael is the true highlight of this…
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Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings ‘Soul of a Woman’ (2017)
The youngest of six children, Sharon Jones was an American soul singer from Brooklyn. Throughout her life she spent a lot of time in the gospel choir at church and did some session work for various artists but never gained any real traction in her music career, leading her to jobs like serving as a…
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Stevie Wonder ‘Songs In The Key of Life’ (1976)
The word “beloved” gets tossed around too often when talking about musicians (guilty as charged on that front), but it’s the perfect word to use when describing Stevie Wonder. An American icon in every sense of the word, Wonder was born six weeks premature and developed retrolental fibroplasia which caused him to become blind shortly…
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The Teskey Brothers ‘Run Home Slow’ (2019)
If I had to use one word to describe The Teskey Brothers 2019 album Run Home Slow? Timeless. Bringing together soul, Americana, and gospel blues in the style of Otis Redding has been done once over throughout the course of music history, but rarely has it sounded so damn smooth from a contemporary band. Much…
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Marvin Gaye ‘What’s Going On’ (1971)
Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On stands today as one of the most important records in the history of recorded music in the United States. This is due to a variety of reasons, the primary one being it’s statements and reflections on American society during the 60’s and 70’s, which was fraught with social upheaval that…
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Fine Young Cannibals ‘The Raw & The Cooked’ (1989)
Fine Young Cannibals 1989 release The Raw & The Cooked is a soul album in the way you’d envision an 80’s New Wave soul album to be. In other words, it’s an eclectic mix of sounds and styles that incorporates breakbeat, New Wave, dance, and rock elements filtered through the gravitational pull of Motown soul…
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Mr. Jukes ‘God First’ (2017)
Inspired by a trip around the world that began with a two-week stay in the hold of a cargo ship (yes, really), Jack Steadman delights in his debut album God First. After a mutual hiatus of his longtime band, the Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Steadman the festival-anthem indie rock focus and tapped into the classic…
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Dusty Springfield ‘Dusty in Memphis’ (1969)
Dusty in Memphis is Dusty Springfield’s magnum opus, an amalgamation of Memphis soul and British orchestral pop that over time has grown in stature to be regarded as one of the all-time great albums. The album was actually a pretty significant commercial flop upon its release 1969 (even with top 10 single “Son of A…
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Thin Lizzy ‘Jailbreak’ (1976)
Thin Lizzy is one of the most underrated bands in rock history in my opinion. Whether it’s the super smooth vocal stylings of Phil Lynott, the twin guitar harmonies of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson that remain to this day the sound of their generation, or the pulsating rhythm section of Brian Downey, there is…
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Derek and the Dominos ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ (1970)
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is Eric Clapton’s finest career work in my opinion, which is truly saying something for a man who stands as probably the most influential and accomplished guitar player in rock history. Formed after the breakup of his previous supergroup Blind Faith and their excellent self-titled album in 1969, Clapton…
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Four Tops ‘Four Tops’ (1965)
Last week we talked about the universal appeal of Motown, and we’re back on that glorious kick again here this week with Four Tops self-titled 1965 debut album. The Four Tops were a part of the Motown Sound that took the world by storm in the 60’s alongside other iconic groups like The Temptations, The…
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The Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ (1964)
I have a running theory that no matter who you are and what music you’re into, by the time you hit your 30’s you either implicitly enjoy the sounds of Motown or you’re probably a sociopath. To be clear this isn’t even to say you actively seek out listening to Motown– it’s just to say…
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Smokey Robinson and the Miracles ‘Going to a Go-Go’ (1965)
Going to a Go-Go is The Miracles and Smokey Robinson’s masterpiece, a perfect encapsulation of the Motown sound and the only record from The Miracles that cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard charts. Their history is complicated, but here’s the headline– the band is one of the most influential R&B and soul groups of…
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Rhye ‘Woman’ (2013)
Rhye burst onto the scene in 2013 and immediately grabbed me with the airy tenderness of vocalist Mike Milosh’s vocals. At the time I was literally completely unaware the singer on Woman was, quite literally, not actually in fact a woman. Whether it was the relative secrecy behind the band at the time or the…
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Aretha Franklin ‘Young, Gifted and Black’ (1972)
There are only two singers in the GOAT conversation for me— the incomparable Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. And no matter where or when you get an opportunity to spin one of their records, it’s just simply a goddamn pleasure. 1972’s Young, Gifted and Black is no exception. There’s something simply stunning listening to the…
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