Neil Spencer 

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: Give the People What They Want – review

The Brooklyn diva's new album purrs with unadulterated soul, writes Neil Spencer
  
  


It's possible to tick off the influences on a Sharon Jones album; the Motown beats of Stranger to My Happiness, the Stax horns on You'll Be Lonely and Now I See (perilously close to Try a Little Tenderness); a Joe Tex riff here, an Aretha wail there. No matter, the 50-something from Brooklyn is her own diva and sounds at once wounded, defiant and exuberant. Producer-bassist Bosco Mann runs a tight band with its own tricks (no Motown hit used a congalero), and which purrs along so joyously the influences fade to leave a core of unadulterated soul. Long may Queen Sharon reign.

 

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