Description
On first spin, most listeners could be forgiven for assuming that this was recorded in the late '60s and dusted off for release forty years later.
A remarkable reproduction of the sound of classic Southern soul, its combination of Stax and Muscle Shoals grease and grit are captured in what can only be called "the Daptone sound." Horns, percussion, background vocals, vibraphone, and rhythm guitar form a cozy, often sizzling blanket that Charles Bradley wraps himself in. His grainy, lived-in vocals are straight out of the James Brown/Wilson Pickett school and are comfortable with both the gospel yearning of slower ballads but ready to make the leap to shouting, searing intensity without warning.