Sharon Jones released her first album with the Dap Kings back in 2002 and since then she’s only seen her profile rise. Eight years later, it’s time for her fourth album, buoyed on a wave of positive press and a well-received appearance on Saturday Night Live that got their album release date pushed up a month.
The new album is very much a continuation of their existing sound, which is grounded heavily in the days of yore, throwing shapes in the style of 60s soul and 70s funk. This album sees a slightly more polished take, scaling back the raw funk elements predominant on the debut in favour of more 60s flavoured Motown soul. It’s a great sound and a sound that I have an enormous fondness for, but there wouldn’t be many people out there claiming that Sharon Jones and her crew perform any grand reinventions or stylistic twists.
What we do have here is a fantastic set of songs, kicking off with “The Game Gets Old,” which has a tiny helping of 70s swank to make the laidback soul-funk shine. “I’ll Still Be True” has that mix of organ swirl and sweaty horn blasts that gets me all hot under the collar, and “Without a Heart” puts on a dab of doo-wop in the verses before kicking up a gear into a punchy chorus. The standout track here is “Better Things To Do,” which has enough strut to it to make the Meters raise their eyebrows – and some neat harmonies that come on like Martha and the Vandellas. Seriously, this thing smokes. Elsewhere, the Dap-Kings get a showcase with instrumental “The Reason.” They really are a dynamite combo who’ve had a huge part to play in the band’s success (and not just here: these guys are in hot demand), so it’s nice to hear them cut loose with a diamond-hard groove.
Overall, it’s another very strong set of songs, although there’s one track that rubs me up the wrong way. Introducing “Money” with a litany of modern economic woes doesn’t disguise the fact the track falls too much on the pastiche side. It feels like a requisite blues moment, too much like we’re listening to Sharon Jones and her Rehash Revue. The central problem I have with all this is that it’s repopularising a sound where too many truly great figures never got their due and have been consigned to the haze of history (three names off the top of my head that shouldn’t have been lost: Arthur Alexander, Lowman Pauling and James Carr). What rankles is that this music can feel like an elision of the past: since their shiny new reproduction is so faithful, why would you need to step backwards in time to discover the path that led to here?
Of course, all this is my head talking. When I’m actually listening to the album and I’m trusting my gut, it feels pretty damn good. There’s something irresistible about the way they do that thing they do – they obviously love this sound and they do it well. It helps that the record keeps things concise, punching through twelve tracks in forty minutes without any flab or dead spots. Basically: if you’re a Sharon Jones fan, you may as well buy this on sight. On the other hand, it’s hard to say anything like “this is the best Sharon Jones album yet.” They’re not doing anything hugely different here; they’ve learned no new tricks to dazzle us with. It’s simply another set of really good songs from a really good singer and her really good band. The real magic here would be if you’re so taken with the passion and the soul and the fire that this band has that you start looking backwards to the places they got their inspiration. There’s a whole fantastic world of music out there that led up to this and a new Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings album is just the icing on the cake.
