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Best Blue-Eyed Soul of 2009
Published by L. Michael Gipson on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:05 pm.
Finnish Soul! Who Knew?
Last year set an all new high-bar in blue-eyed soul thanks to artists like Adele, Duffy, Jamie Lidell, Sam Sparro and Alice Russell in the UK and vocalists like Jennie Laws, Leigh Jones, Robin Thicke, and Mycle Wastman on this side of the pond. These artists destroyed the dismissive image of the white artists over-singing and over-emoting to gain an ounce of soul cred ala Michael Bolton and Joss Stone. So this year’s blue-eyed soulsters had a lot to live up to. Some like Jonas made the grade and others like Mayer Hawthorne didn’t (great songwriter, but showers singers out-sing this man). Acts like Quadron and Pepper Pots got some deserved notices from the hipsters, but I needed a bit more vocally for them to make the cut. Which blue-eyed soul singer knocked your socks off in ’09? Here’s who did mine:
Tuomo (Reaches Out For You) Heartbreakingly honest lyricism riding ‘70s soundscapes worthy of producer greats like Willie Hutch. Finnish multi-instrumentalist, Tuomo, on cuts like “Ordinary” and “Reaches Out For You” proves the real deal.
Swing Out Sister (Beautiful Mess) Twenty-years later there’s nothing messy about these vet’s Burt Bachrach flavored contemporary chic, but there’s plenty beautiful. “Butterfly,” “Something Every Day” and a stripped down version of their first #1 hit “BreakOut” keeps these UK legends squarely in the game.
Diane Birch (Bible Belt) With red dirt paintings like “Fools” and “Photograph,” this newcomer’s already being compared to Laura Nyro and Carol King. Birch’s bluesy, eclectic collection will make you glad to have lived through another singer/songwriting renaissance. More! More!
Marc Broussard (Keep Coming Back) Soulfully soaring over his third album, Saving Our Soul, Broussard has never written songs this filled with love and longing. A near perfect, lyrical work.
Alice Russell (Pot of Gold) She’s been bolder and more daring on projects past, but rarely this musically accessible. Quantic Soul Orchestra diva-ette, Russell is the mistress of space on Gnarls’ Barkley’s “Crazy” but “Lights Went Out” is the musical found art that makes her one of a kind.
A Bedroom Thicke
Dan Dyer (Dan Dyer) Three albums deep, Dyer is made new with this classic rock meets soul recording of lively, organic material. Listening to these spare productions references to Lewis Taylor and the Spinners come to mind, but so does Led Zepplin and the Doors. Who does that?
James Morrison (Songs For You, Truth For Me) The risk of coming out early in the year is that everyone’s usually forgotten about you by year’s end. Not that a child of Rod Stewart and Stevie Wonder would ever have to worry about being forgotten, not after epic cuts like “Fix The World Up For You” and the folksy reminiscences of “Once When I Was Little.” What’s next Gap kid?
Daniel Merriweather (Love and War) Getting your start with producer Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse), sends expectations into the orbit for your debut. A duet with Adele, “Water and A Flame,” only ups the addy. So, when the gloriously performed “Red” elevated Merriweather to the next big thing in UK soul pop, all anyone could do was applaud. Expectations exceeded.
Matt Cusson (Matt Cusson) If the notoriously egotistical Brian McKnight takes you under his wing, you must be doing something right. The jazz and soul piano man was doing enough right to nail the languid standard “Like A Lover” and to sweep Broadway’s Shoshana Beam up on a floating duet of “Could You Be” from McKnight’s million seller, Anytime. Talent, baby, talent.
Robin Thicke (Sex Therapy: The Experience) He has a long way to go with me before I get over all those Magic promos hailing him as the King of Soul, courtesy of some hack at the L.A. Times. Still, when Thicke is on, as he is on “911” and “Mona Lisa,” there are few songwriting crooners who are better. King of Soul? Nah. Bobby Caldwell’s heir apparent? That’s more like it.
