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Candi Station: Back To My Roots (Beracah)
Verdict: Disco diva goes gospel
As the passionate voice behind the 1976 disco standard Young Hearts Run Free and 1990s club classic You Got The Love — the latter famously covered by Florence + The Machine — Candi Staton is one of the grande dames of dance music. Reiterating her love of the glitzy nightlife, she also reached the Top Ten with a funky cover of the Bee Gees’ Nights On Broadway.
But the Alabama-born singer, 85 next month, has other strings to her bow. She launched her career in a gospel trio that toured with Sam Cooke and The Staple Singers. She’s also sung southern soul, and covered country tunes like Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man.
Beyond that, a late-career renaissance that began in 2006 has seen her embrace modern Americana via collaborations with Mark Nevers, of Nashville alt-country band Lambchop, and rocker Jason Isbell.
Her previous album, 2018’s Unstoppable, contained versions of Nick Lowe’s Peace, Love And Understanding and Patti Smith’s People Have The Power.
As the passionate voice behind the 1976 disco standard Young Hearts Run Free and 1990s club classic You Got The Love — the latter famously covered by Florence + The Machine — Candi Station (pictured) is one of the grande dames of dance music
But the Alabama-born singer, 85 next month, has other strings to her bow
She ties all those disparate strands together on new album Back To My Roots (pictured). Ostensibly a gospel record, it takes detours into blues and jazzy R&B
She ties all those disparate strands together on new album Back To My Roots. Ostensibly a gospel record, it takes detours into blues and jazzy R&B.
There are two duets with her older sister Maggie Staton Peebles — a fellow member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s — and one with Memphis legend William Bell, all performed with soulful swing.
Among the more devotional tracks are the ballad It’s Gonna Rain (‘a song my mother used to sing every evening after prayer’). A duet with her sister, it’s delivered with husky aplomb. Singing with conviction and precision, she also tackles Peace In The Valley, a spiritual popularised by Elvis Presley, and The Lord Will Make A Way, once revived by Al Green.
With this album a mix of standards and tracks written by Staton — who co-produced with her son Marcus Williams — there’s a gospel flavour to many of the originals, too, including the bluesy God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway and Reach Down And Touch Heaven For Me, with the latter seeing Staton playing piano on one of her records for the first time.
She addresses secular issues as well, with 1963 a sober, spoken-word reflection on the racist bombing of an Alabama Baptist church in the year in question, and Love Breakthrough an homage to Diana Ross & The Supremes.
A cover of The Rolling Stones’ Shine A Light (a tribute to the late Brian Jones, and the penultimate track on 1972’s Exile On Main St.) offers further proof of Candi’s ability to put her own spin on any standard. Five decades on from her biggest hit, she’s still running free.
Back To My Roots is out today.
Best of the new releases…
ALESSIA CARA: Love & Hyperbole (Def Jam)
A poster girl for Millennials when she was crowned Best New Artist at the Grammys in 2018, Alessia Cara has been open about her mental health struggles.
But the Canadian adopts a positive mindset on her fourth album, expressing herself confidently alongside a band that includes Prince’s trombonist, Roy Agee.
‘Fears are only false creations,’ she admits on (Isn’t It) Obvious, while Slow Motion has a fond reference to R&B legend Erykah Badu. ‘We flow like Badu,’ she sings.
A poster girl for Millennials when she was crowned Best New Artist at the Grammys in 2018, Alessia Cara (pictured) has been open about her mental health struggles
THE LUMINEERS: Automatic (Dualtone)
Once dubbed the US answer to Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers have grown into an arena-pleasing touring band while slimming down from a
quintet to a core duo of singer Wesley Schultz and pianist Jeremiah Fraites.
With both now being fathers, their first new album in three years is a personal affair with bittersweet love songs.
Plasticine features a piece of dialogue (though not the famous Meg Ryan clip) from classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally.
The Lumineers have grown into an arena-pleasing touring band while slimming down from a quintet to a core duo of singer Wesley Schultz and pianist Jeremiah Fraites (pictured)
THE WOMBATS: Oh! The Ocean (AWAL)
The Liverpool trio continue to add wit and nuance to their songwriting without abandoning a tried-and-trusted template.
The guitar-driven Can’t Say No, a hymn to recklessness, will go down a storm at indie club nights, and Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come casts frontman Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy as a reluctant party-goer.
He lives in California with his American wife and two daughters, and his view of his adopted homeland is evident in I Love America And She Hates Me.
The Liverpool trio (pictured) continue to add wit and nuance to their songwriting without abandoning a tried-and-trusted template
