Various Artists
Daptone Gold
(Daptone)
SOUNDS LIKE: Stax.
A few years ago, my friends and I went through a mod phase. We'd wear three-button suits, spend our Saturday nights dancing to Wilson Pickett, and wonder naively-as one new "soul-inspired" artist after another proved to be little more than Top 40 schlock-why no one was making real soul music anymore.
Of course, someone was. And they were doing a damn fine job of it.
Daptone Records, most famous as the Brooklyn home to Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, has spent the last seven years releasing albums that could slide seamlessly into the Stax back catalogue-and earn their keep. Daptone Gold provides a 23-track overview of that history, mixing together hits, rarities and previously unreleased material ranging from wrenching ballads like Lee Fields' "Could Have Been", to The Budos Bands' Afro-tinged instrumentals, to upbeat, dance-floor friendly tunes like Jones and The Dap-Kings' "Tell Me".
Whatever the radio might like you to think, Daptone Gold is undeniable proof: soul's not dead, it just moved to Brooklyn.
Reviewed by Adam Bunch
Courtesy of: soundproofmagazine.com