One CD for Dancin', One CD for Romancin'

Eli "Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves - Roll With You
Q Division

Eli "Paperboy" Reed - Come and Get It
Capitol Records

www.elipaperboyreed.com

OK, if you don't like soul music or a good rock'n'roll rave-up (which hard soul can be mistaken for) then don't read any further. Now, for the rest of you WANGBAMALAMALANGA. This is what I've been waiting for. Somethin' undeniably real. Somethin' where everything you've ever been dragged through comes back and bites you on the butt and says WHAM! Two magical soul albums, a guy from Boston who even smokes Johnnie Taylor. This kid has grit, soul, and all the musical moves that you ever imagined. OK. Pretend you're new to this. Pretend you've never bought any Otis Redding, pretend you've never collected any James Brown, pretend you haven't listened to the Stax/Volt Singles, pretend Aretha is just an old gal at the Grammys, pretend Sam Cooke and Otis Rush and Steve Cropper and the Bar-Kays and Marvin Gaye and Eddie Floyd and Eddie Kendricks and The Temps and the Tops are just names that you've surfed past on your way to buy another artist. STOP! and take a listen! "You'll know just what you've been missin' when I get through with you! Cuz I'm the Satisfier {satisfiiieeerr}" Homeboy's got it. The reigning monarch of soul. So good that Sly Stone hadda get wasted for two years straight after hearin' 'Roll With You'. Fucker wails. End of story. But that ain't much of a review. So lemme get with the fingers wagglin' and tell yah a little bit more. I was disgusted with neo-soul! I mean yeah the Dap-Kings and Hm but not bad Sharon Jones and Trash Bitch (you know who I mean, the racist twat) and a few other lesser lights, but still reminiscent of that sound that shook the city back in the Sixties and such. Damn it though, it just made me bury my head deeper in the classics. Listenin' to stuff like Booker T.'s McLemore Avenue and thinkin' wistfully that they don't make stuff like that anymore... well... I'm here to TESTIFY! That there exists, a saviour of soul! a punk of funk! a chief of the bamalam! a man who has brought the sound back to make the world do the frug, the hully-gully, the watusi, the camel-walk, the funky penguin, and the Boom-Boom. This is the stuff to make memories with. To dance with your wife for the first time to. To sing out to the world that you know the heart of pain and love. One album is harder edged, a little more gritty, somethin' to make yah get up and dance. The other? is for romancin', to put tears of joy in her eyes, a little softer, a little more lovin', and damn doesn't it. His background? Man, that almost got me, band guy, Dad with a record collection, almost ready to write him off as a poseur, but then, got the albums and BOOM! The simple obviousness of how fucking awesome Paperboy (fer his grandad's paperboy hat) and the True Loves (also featured on the second album but not listed as the artist (probably for marketing purposes)) are. Steeped in Soul with shoutouts and shiny suits. The only thing missing is the sweat, but these guys HAVE nothing to sweat, they'd make the old-time soul masters sit up in their graves and start rattlin' their bones. Masterful music. Hype these fuckers like crazy! Give them to anyone you know with a DJ booth, tie up the lines at your radio station, request them from your favorite venue, then get up and dance! Halllaballloooollaaaaaaaaaah!