During the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists would live stream performances from their living rooms/basements/bedrooms. The ones that I dropped in on never did much for me, save for one:
Mamas Gun. These guys sounded fantastic live, looked like they were having a blast, and didn't charge me anything for the experience. One of the few musical highlights of early 2020 for me, along with discovering a wonderful
Brenda Russell album.
Always considered a retro-70's band, Mamas Gun really skews towards the soul end of the spectrum on this release. Lots of characteristic, rich, thick backing vocals harmonies (see track 5,
Reconsider) and familiar soul tropes. For example, if track 7,
Friends To Lovers, doesn't remind you of Al Green's Love And Happiness, I suggest you spend more time with the Rev. Green. No dance tracks here - this is all about the mid-tempo love songs and introspective ballads. In a
previous post about the group, I wrote "It's odd how an album of new music can immediately take you back 40+ years to the hot summer days of youth, but somehow they done did it" and that holds true again here. Simply put, if you like Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, and the groups like the ones mentioned below, there's most likely something on this album for you.
Those are my brief thoughts, let's see how the (presumably) paid professionals do it:
"Listeners who appreciate undiluted soul music with meaningful words are advised to set aside 45 minutes in their schedules, lay back, and enjoy this sonic cure for the jones" - Soul Tracks
"Cure the Jones is a supreme alignment of intent and execution. Its song are not accidentally poignant. Its exquisite craftsmanship happens by design." - Nevermind
"Plenty of commentators are already tipping ‘Cure The Jones’ to be nominated as one of 2022’s best albums… we won’t argue." (5 out of 5) - Soul and Jazz and Funk
"On this new album they discover the soul of the early seventies with many of these new songs here having the soulfulness of The Stylistics and The Delfonics mixed with the eighties pop of Hall and Oates." - Chimeo
"arguably their best work yet." - Jazz Revelations
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: Videos were produced for
Party For One and
Good Love, both good tracks with so-so videos. The best track may be
Looking For Moses or When You Stole The Sun From The Sky. I can't say I like what how the electric piano pitch is manipulated at the beginning of the title track, but the second half of the song is good once you get past that nonsense. Track 9, You're Too Hip (For Me Baby), has '50s doo-wop vocals over a rudimentary synth drum part and somehow that dichotomy works.
So get over to the group's
Bandcamp site and get you a copy of the signed CD:
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None
Previously revisited for the blog:
Golden Days (2018)
