Opensouls: Standing in the Rain (Dirty)

 |   |  <1 min read

Opensouls: Dollars
Opensouls: Standing in the Rain (Dirty)

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like this quite as much as I do. Certainly some songs lack a soulful punch and you'd wish for more power in the vocals of Tyra at times.

But these people write a good tune -- albeit it grounded in Motown classic riffs and shifts -- and the edgy guitars elevate it a little more than I had anticipated. It is soul with a subtle injection of rock, and that's kinda cool.

There's also a sultry blues quality in places (Love Turn Wild) and some Sixties girl-pop in others (When Ya Gonna Stop? Walk Away, Dollars) which mix things up a little too.

This being the 50th anniversary of Motown and the time of the trickdown from Duffy, Beth Rowley, Amy Winehouse and others, Opensouls are putting themselves into a getting-mighty-crowded genre -- but with some jazzy piano playing and those other elements mentioned they have staked out a little piece of turf of their own.

It may sound a little like soul-on-remote to some ears (it certainly is on the first single Hold You Close, not the best on the album), but I think that demeans their understated appeal and the subtle post-Ardijah/Pasifika feel they intuitively bring to things.

Don't be too sniffy if you are a soul purist.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Human Instinct: Midnight Sun (Ode)

Human Instinct: Midnight Sun (Ode)

When thirtysomething guitarist Joel Haines invited me to the launch of the new Human Instinct album he told me he'd joined the group. I said, “ You've joined what used to one of the most... > Read more

Lila Downs, Shake Away (EMI)

Lila Downs, Shake Away (EMI)

The new album by the US-Hispanic singer should get a good reception here given her popularity at the last Womad (see tag for interview) -- but this one sees her embracing a more centrist rock... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

MIKE SCOTT OF THE WATERBOYS INTERVIEWED (2014): The nearest thing to hip . . .

MIKE SCOTT OF THE WATERBOYS INTERVIEWED (2014): The nearest thing to hip . . .

About 15 months ago Mike Scott of the Waterboys released a whopping seven CD set of the sessions which lead to the band's two-years-in-the-making breakthrough album Fisherman's Blues. The... > Read more

Elsewhere Art . . . Soviet-era free jazz

Elsewhere Art . . . Soviet-era free jazz

This collage-cum-Letraset is positively ancient, it dates back to the Soviet-era when jazz was not just supressed in Russia and its satellites but free jazz was way underground and tapes of it were... > Read more