Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Maybe there's something anachronistic about a band that plays funk music in the 21st century as if Parliament (let alone hip-hop) had never happened. It does sound like Sharon Jones could have cut her record in 1967, not 2007. But when the music's this good, those concerns fly out the window. Jones pours everything she's got into this album, and her gruff, passionate, brassy style grabs you by the collar and doesn't let go until the end. The Dap-Kings restrain themselves behind her, shuffling and jangling but leaving her plenty of space to maneuver on a clutch of good, if not great, songs.

Sharon jones projects her gritty, credible, emotion-laden, stylistically undistinguished
voice over some of the finest horn charts ever created for soul music -- funky, jazzy,
subtly voiced things that compare to Pee Wee Ellis' trickiest writing for James Brown. But
this being pop, the usefulness of the whole comes down to songwriting. Though the
fatalistic title number sticks, there's a reason Ellis shares his most memorable cop... More >