THE SOULSTRESS - LEELA JAMES |
Monday, 03 October 2005 |
It’s difficult to tell whether soulstress Leela James wishes for
cultural or political change. Her album ironically hints at the former,
the irony being that she’s suggesting we revert to the sounds of
yesteryear to reclaim the essence of the genre, but its title derives
from Sam Cooke’s didactic release of the same name. There’s a thin
layer of vinyl crackle to be heard under the very Al Green/Willie
Mitchell sounding Music, one of many tricks employed to give
the album an authenticity to match James washboard voice. The songs are
essentially grooves. Soul Food is a good example where a simple
handclap rhythm, swaggering basslines and vocal harmony (rooted in
Gospel) is made all that more powerful by a swelling of violins. On
Rain, a similarly sloppy rhythm keeps hidden for James to shine over
some breathy adlibs. This woman has more soul than most singers can
muster up to go to the bathroom, and as cynical as it is to say,
singers are a dime a dozen. Leela James shows enormous maturity for a
debut artist and she has enlisted all of the right collaborators
(Duplaix, Pete Rock, Commissioner Gordon, Wyclef, Kanye West and
Raphael Saadiq) to place her in the right direction. by Huwston
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