Ohhhh boy. Today, I have for you some sensual, sultry, sweet soul for your aural pleasure. And what a pleasure it is: minimalist, but incredibly expressive, conveying a bewitching mood of journeys in the night and broken dreams. It’s dark, but tender and heartfelt and goodness me, I think I’m in love – the breathy vocals, the sparse instrumentation, the electronic accentuations… what a track!
Now, here’s something pretty special: gorgeous soul that, even though it sounds like it’s come directly from Motown in the 70s, is actually from Australia in 2014. Emma Donovan & The PutBacks perfectly captures the elegance, gentleness and rawness of the era with this fantastic track (and album) without feeling like it’s just pandering to a retro style. Rather, it feels wonderfully genuine in a way that few modern throwbacks tend to, thanks in part to The PutBacks’ perfectly balanced instrumentation, but mostly due to Emma’s stunning voice. More, please!
It was with great sadness that I learnt today that Joe Cocker had passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. I greatly enjoyed his music and figured the best way that I could honour his memory would be with this little post about his most famous work.
A cover of the Beatles song, Cocker made it entirely his own with this wonderfully soulful, sentimental arrangement that has become as ubiquitous as the original version (if not more so). His raspy but powerful vocals perfectly compliment the backup singers in a way that, on paper, really shouldn’t work.
You will be missed, Mr. Cocker.
This song made the rounds a few years ago now, but that’s ok: stuff that’s good and popular at some point in history has that status in perpetuity. I mean, the Macarena is just as amazing now as it was back- oh darn.
Thankfully, Pack Up has retained it’s indelible goodness, what with its pleasing joyfulness and charm. It’s a toe-tapping, head-nodding, body-shaking good time, that’s for darn sure.
Gosh dangit, yesterday’s post is still making me sad. In a good way, I assure you. So, let’s lighten the mood, shall we? How about some cool, casual soul from Australia?
Australia’s latest digital radio network, Double J is proving itself to be a music gold mine, particularly if it keeps unearthing stuff like this for me to steal post about. My journalistic integrity aside, it’s gotta be good for the artists featured on the station to get more mentions elsewhere, right???
Yesterday’s post is still making me retch, so let’s just consider this a palette cleanser. Thankfully, this palette cleanser is triple strength and will no doubt reaffirm your belief in brilliant music. That bass! That voice! Those lyrics! It’s sublime: a perennial classic, completely overflowing in joyfulness and class. So, hit play below and just try and stop smiling!
Sometimes, you need a bit of romance in your musical life. And not just songs about whatever dude Taylor Swift can’t seem to get over these days. No, sometimes you need perennially sweet and lovely, genre defining songs. So you should be pretty gosh-danged glad that you came to either/or to satisfy your needs, because we totally got your back.
This song has been covered to death, but nothing beats this original duet between two Motown greats. Ain’t nothing pretentious, overly sappy or overwrought here, folks: just pure delight!
Michael Franti from Spearhead has featured on either/or before, but it’s safe to say that it was a little different to what I’m bringing you today. From a classic soul tune to something that, while inspired by soul, feels totally different. And in a good way! Would it be weird to call this lusciously smooth? It is, you say? Well dang, I’m going to go with it anyway, because that’s what it is!
Man, I totally forgot about this group. I saw them ages ago, performing on Spicks and Specks (an Australian TV music show that has been responsible for many a post on this site). They performed a rather delightful a cappella version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman, which I thought to be pretty awesome! I then promptly forgot about them, until yesterday’s post reintroduced me to them by way of related videos. Oh YouTube, you are so good.
So here they are, with a song that’s more up their musical alley (that alley being blues and jazz from the ’50s and ’60s). My sources inform me that they’ll be launching an album quite soon: bring it on, I say! For now, enjoy this gorgeous live rendition of one of their original songs.
Hey, did you guys know I like the Beatles? Yeah, they’re pretty sweet. Apparently, a lot of artists also like the Beatles, because their songs have been covered up the wazoo over the years.
Here is Doris Troy, who was actually signed by the Beatles to their Apple Records label, with a cracking cover of Get Back (produced by George Harrison). It’s quite far removed from the original Beatles version in terms of style, but it’s certainly equally as brilliant.
