Hello!
Welcome to post number 14! Today I shall be reviewing an album called 'Half The City' by a very cool soul band called St.Paul & The Broken Bones. Coming from Birmingham, Alabama this seven piece band were a real treat for me to find. If you enjoy this post then don't forget to subscribe via email to get updates for the next post!
Now, you can find this album in the "10 Albums you must hear this month" section on Itunes. This is where I found this album and as I said before, I was pleasantly surprised by the find. I was looking through all ten of the albums and not much hope was lasting out for me, they all sounded the same. Then this album was one of the last ones for me to check out and it was like a blessing.
The bands line up is as follows:
Paul Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass) Browan Lollar (guitars, vocals), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Andrew Lee (drums, percussion), Ben Griner (trombone, tuba), Al Gamble (keyboards).
This band is extremely talented in creating such a fresh and exciting tone for soul. On vocals is a man called Paul Janeway and this guy has got a voice! Boy has he got a voice! I had to take a step back and really think about what I was listening to. You can't get anymore soul than this man's voice, he was clearly meant to do this for a living. He puts so much energy and commitment to his voice its so refreshing to hear from a singer.
You can really feel the emotion throughout every song, when the band raises the volume you can feel the energy run right through. Paul really loves to stretch his vocals to the very limits, some can take your breath away with the shear power. A great example of this power is the first track on the album called "I'm Torn Up". The notes Paul sings at the end are...just something else.
The album flows so nicely with some real funky songs mixed in with some 6/8 slow soul. They seem to love to take the listener on a rollercoaster with their sound. Taking it down to the bare minimum, then bringing the whole band in with Paul going all guns blazing with his voice, to finish the songs off with a small tone from the guitar. The song that displays this well is "Broken Bones and Pocket Change".
Another thing this band does well is utilising every instrument. Making sure everyone can be heard on the album for the greater good of the sound. The track "Don't Mean A Thing" lets every section have its little moments with the horn section for the chorus'. Then the verses for the bass to be heard clearly and again, its all for the sound. The keyboard section in "Grass Is Greener" is shone through in this track more than any of the others. It's a seven piece band, this is how it should be done.
The songs I recommend to you are "Call Me", "I'm Torn Up", "Its Midnight", "Let It Be So" and "Like A Mighty River".
If you're looking for a soul band that has a refreshing and revitalising sound to them, then please go check this band out. The more I listen to this album, the more excited I get about how happy I am that I've finally found some new soul music to show off to all of you.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on the social networks linked at the top left!
Until next time.
Lewis :)
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