Customer Reviews

Naturally

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What you get with any Daptone, Truth and Soul, Soul Fire or Desco release is serious no punches pulled gritty soul and funk with the same feel and sound as classic late 60's and early 70's soul.

This music is not a gimmick.

Nor is it like a cheesy 70's Blaxploitation soundtrack or a misjudged pseudo-soul acid jazz sounding record. There is quality and depth to these performances and heart and soul that goes as deep as anything you have ever heard.

It is being created and listened to by people who are sick and tired of the sterile mass marketed soul-less dross that the music industry continues to spew forth nowadays. People like Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, Charles Bradley, Joseph Henry, Naomi Davis and the NYC collective of musicians is doing us a great service by creating sounds of such organic beauty and raw funkiness.

What is great about this album is that, unlike Dap-Dippin', the music is way more varied; there are more ideas and more scope for lyrics with meaning. The biggest success of this album is that it proves to the critics that Sharon and the Daps are no one-trick ponies.

Here's a quick breakdown of the tracks in order;

How Do You Let A Good Man Down
This is my favourite new track by Sharon Jones. Firstly the groove is way different from anything off of the first album and it's more of a medium paced tempo. Great little horn riffs. The lyric is great too. We've all been in a similar position, but the band has got the feeling and groove nailed down tight!

Natural Born Lover
This one is a real late 60's stomper in the vein of the slew of 45's that came out around Mr Big Stuff (similar geetar in places) and has backing vocals. Over the drum breaks there's a chant 'An N.B.L. and a T.B.C.' which is very kitsch. It doesn't ruin the song but a lot of DJ's would have preferred an open drum break. I can take it or leave the little chant but it's a mighty fine Groove as always.

Stranded In Your Love
Is a duet with Lee Fields (check out his 2 albums, Problems and Lets Get A Groove On). This is a funny, jokey but heart-warming song. Despite this the general groove is just great. Sure it's a ballad, and it's not going to get many plays out, but it's bound to win you over with oodles of charm. All I can say is; 'Thank god Lee's car got stolen, cause otherwise he would never have slipped into Sharon's bed...'

Hang on, did his car ever actually get stolen, or was it a dodgy scheme to get in her pants?... I'll let you decide!

My Man Is A Mean Man
Has the BEST groove on the whole album. It's frenetic like the first album, but it's even better than anything on there as it sounds significantly different (some of the tracks on the first were very similar to each other). This a real butt-shaking floor-stomper, with bass drums and conga played at a breakneck speed! I don't know how these guys play such dense, frenetic- yet tight grooves so effortlessly. Totally thrilling.

You're Gonna Get It
Side one finishes with You're Gonna Get It which is another ballad, but this time much slower. This sounds so like an old 60's tune that it's unbelievably authentic. A nice tune, not funk, just soul. The horn players manage to sound a bit like a Yorkshire Colliery Brass Band at about 3.00mins in too. Get your whippets and flat caps out!

How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?
Side 2 starts with How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?. This is another highlight. Middish tempo and sufficiently different from their first album to feel that the band are moving forwards with the 'sound'. Fat Drums and Sharon in form, topped of with a sprinkle of trumpet.

This Land Is Your Land
You'll already know this if you buy the singles direct from the website. Again another highlight for me. An old Woody Guthrie tune (he was a folk singer who inspired Bob Dylan) that pushes the band out a bit further with their sound than Dap Dippin' did.

Your Thing Is A Drag
Is a vamp based on Papas Got A Brand New Bag and is typical of reply songs that that came out in the sixties (a la It's My Thing, It's Your Thing, It's Our Thing etc). Bass is the highlight on this one. Great party tune.

Fish In The Dish
Is a New Orleans type of track, done at a slow-mid tempo. It's a nice track, but not my favourite, despite impeccable playing as always (it's ok to like some songs more than others, even if it's Sharon, right?).

At 1.40 min there's a great bit of piano. and the tune gets into a nice groove. There's even a little whistling (a la Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay) right at the end!

All Over Again
Is a massively good tune, made unbelievable by Earl Maxton's soaring Hammond. One of the best things Sharon and the band have done so far. This is another ballad, with a nice guitar lead too. This is nicely produced and may not satisfy the 'funk heads' but the 'soul' crowd will dig it.

You'll notice that there's a few new names in the band, but the core- bass and drums (and bugaloo velez) are intact. These two are, to me, what makes the Dap Kings so impressive.

Negatives?

It's too short.

I wanted Paying Taxes, Genuine, and What Condition on there, so that was disappointing. Perhaps they'll go on a Daptone CD comp of their singles later in the year?

What Condition (a cover of a Betty Lavette song) will be released in April on Hot, Funky and Sweaty a compilation CD, with, get this; A NEW POETS OF RHYTHM SONG!.

Where has Sharon Jones been all my life? Listlessly drudging up mack versions of quasi-soul [check out the R&B charts lately?] or pale, white-bread faux artists [see Joss Stone] and sickly tired of female artists trying to imitate of all people [God help us all] Ashanti, this is the real deal. Every so often, terrific neo-soul artists emerge [Angie Stone, John Legend, Van Hunt, Anthony Hamilton] but they bow to their forefathers and foremothers, and they do it genuinely and often with great results. But then there's Sharon Jones. Neo-soul and R&B dross be damned, this is the Mama from Atlanta with the deep fried cadence. With one majestic neo-classic after another, Sharon's big dirty Southern voice wraps it's sinewy sinfulness around each melody - singing the funk blues so delectable that white folks devour them even though they're aimed at the black aesthete. They're so archetypal, so gorgeous, you have to wonder why no one's ever thunk them before. But for all it's grit, there is a also beauty in her voice that in undeniable...she plays vocally to all of her strengths all the while the back-up-band-from-heaven, the Dap Kings, keep their hypnotic pace - so rarely do you hear such unified universal funk soul brothers drenched with the sexual politico. And in the aftermath of the most pathetic administration in recent history, rejoice in Jones' effect in making `This Land Is Your Land', with its often overlooked 3rd verse, the political statement of the year. My grade: A

"Naturally" is a true soul album, and so far it is the best album of the year. It's a true "100 percenter" -- meaning there isn't one song on here that I skip over. All ten songs on here are absolute classics. Furthermore, I go back and forth every day trying to decide which song is the best -- the sign of a great album.

Somehow, producer Bosco Mann got a true AM sound to come out of this album. The resulting feel makes the songs sound as if they were coming out of like a small transistor radio on a hot summer day. Like I said, it sounds just like a classic Gamble/Huff record, but I never once get the sense the band is trying too hard. It's very real, and terrific.

The band is just fantastic, especially the guitar licks interspersed here and there (like on "How Long Do I Have To Wait For You"), and Sharon Jones' voice is tremendous. Furthermore, the lyrics on this album are also terrific, laced with sex and sexual politics. For example, the lyrics on the opening track "How Do I Let A Good Man Down?" are particularly painful.

The album really hits its stride with tracks 4,5, and 6: "My Man Is A Mean Man", "You're Gonna Get It", and "How Long Do I Have To Wait For You". That is a 1-2-3 punch of pure soul!

Right now my favorite tune is "You're Gonna Get It", which over time could go down as one of the all-time great slow dance songs, on a level with Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long". If this song is ever playing on a jukebox in a lonely bar past 1 a.m., I would be willing to bet you'd see a couple or two having a quiet slow dance. It's that good.

If you love the soul music of the 60s and 70s, then you must, repeat, must have "Naturally". Again, it is the best album of 2005. In time, I expect to see many more reviews confirming this claim.

I love Sharon Jones! Her voice oozes soul and sass, and the Dap Kings back her with a groove that makes it impossible to stay still once you hear it. This is their second CD, and contains more ballad oriented material than their hard hitting first disc, "Dap Dippin". However, this disc is not lacking in grooves. "How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?" is so catchy it's addictive. I have played this song so many times it's not even funny. "This Land Is Your Land" is a VERY creative cover of the Woody Guthrie standard. It's a far cry from the original version! Also noteworthy is Sharon Jones' put down of a lover on "Your Thing Is A Drag". The band really lays down a groove on this song and Sharon gets the guy GOOD. If you liked the first album by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, you should definitely pick this one up, they continue to be the best funk band around.

I'm always digging through store racks and music reviews looking for those gems that blissfully escape the tortured radio-only masses. I can't remember where I first heard about the Dap Kings, but the group and their label, Daptone Records, kept coming up.

Finally, I broke down and ordered NATURALLY from Amazon. It got here less than 24 hours ago and I can already say this is one of the best musical purchases I've made in 2005. "Loose and tight" was one description I read about Daptone recordings and that fits NATURALLY perfectly.

Besides that, it's tough to describe the music. It's definitely nothing like contemporary R&B; mostly because there's no syncopated drum machine laying down the beat. Remember, Daptone is all about making music "naturally." On the other hand, this isn't really soul music of the 70's EWF, Al Green, or Diana Ross variety.

A lot of reviewer recall James Brown when discussing "NATURALLY", and while I see the similarities, I'm not sure if that's a great comparison. The closest my brain can generate right now is the boogaloo sound of the Greyboy Allstars, but funkier and with searing vocals by Sharon Jones.

It's easier to place Ms Jones wonderful voice. Just tune your ears to those fiery mavens of the 60's and 70's whose voices made it to the record without some producer fiddling around with the vocal tracks, attempting to "fine tune" the sound. Ms Jones has a classic soul voice, at once completely familiar, but with pleasing unique affections.

Favorite tracks include 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9. The only song that doesn't really do it for me is track #5, "You're Gonna Get It." Otherwise, I can listen to this CD from beginning to end and bop my head all the way through.

New singer, climbed her way to the national scene late in life. She was working until recently as a security guard or something, but man has she got talent. The fact that she wasn't discovered until recently is an indictment against the record industry and their disproportionate interest in the "look" of singers. No, she's not pretty in the Britney Spears/Paris Hilton kind of way, but she has a simply gorgeous voice which she uses to sing R and B with a lot of funk and soul. If you like the old Motown sounds, or 70s funk, and who doesn't by the way, you can't help but love this CD. It's not just her remarkable talents, her band includes an excellent horn section, an impressive rhythm section, and a monster of a bass player who seems to be the band leader. Get this CD, check out the Daptone label for other funky soul r and b CD's you should have, and next chance you can, see the DapKings live. You ever noticed how race, ethnicity, age, nationality, social class, and sometimes even gender and sexual orienation segregates music audiences? Well it's the opposite with the old Motown sound, you start playing that stuff to just about any crowd and people start dancing and singing along. Same thing with this Sharon Jones stuff, in concert, they get an pretty diverse crowd of fans.

Sometimes I think I'm the only person under 30 who really knows what soul is. But I had the very fortunate experience of seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings live recently and half of the faces in the audience were as young if not younger than mine. Sharon dances without choreography and the Dap Kings jammed without synthesizers. This is music the way it was meant to be. The revolution might not be televised, but it will be on stage, sold on Amazon, and headquartered in Brooklyn.

Heard this CD playing at the a local indie store and bought it on the spot. If you are like me and new to purchasing this type of music, this CD is a good place to explore what FUNK really is! It;s not the junk you hear at dance clubs today for sure. I have always been a rock and roll guy but this album just grabbed me. Give it a shot and I am sure you will LOVE it!

There's just a little I can add to Mr. Sinclair's extensive review (available elsewhere on Amazon's page for "Naturally").

I have yet to have the pleasure of seeing Ms Jones and the Dap Kings play live, but it's worth mentioning that the DaptoneRecords site lists upcoming dates.

To my ears, several tracks -- especially "Natural Born Lover" and "How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?" -- would appeal to ANYONE who has EVER loved ANY of the great American "soul" styles (R&B on Atlantic in the 50s & 60s, Motown, Philly Soul, 70s funk, etc.)

But Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings transcend nostalgia. Refreshing, real, soulful -- every track on "Naturally" is brimming with music that feels just as good as listening to a side of the Atlantic Rhythm & Blues box set.

Their version of "This Land Is Your Land" is a special treat, the track that I come back to after filling up on the two songs mentioned above, the revelation of what depths still lie within the song, and within the country, Naturally.

Also enshrinable with the greatest soul albums of all time. No mere retro act, this band proves there is a wealth of vibrant powerful sound left in this style. Heartbreaking, transcendent cover of This Land Is Your Land kills me every time.