Being a fan of the greats of soul music such as; Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, I was especially excited for the release of Leon Bridges’ debut album, which was released 23rd June. I came across Bridges when I first heard his single “Coming Home”, which came up on iTunes recommended, which then led me to pre-order the album and this is what I found.
Coming Home is like listening to a dusty, old vinyl record that you stumble across at an old relative’s home, or at least has that same authenticity. What’s clear in Bridges’ record is his singing capabilities, his voice stands tall amongst a 60s style band with cute doo-wop backing vocals and languid horn sections in “Shine”, or even a ragtime piano on “Flowers”.
I think it is clear that soul music is re-emerging in modern music; with artists like Curtis Harding and his new album Soul Power which is also a great soul record. There are also great bands like St Paul & The Broken Bones who recently released a marvellous RNB and Soul album called Half the City which is worth a listen. Even bigger artists like the lead singer of Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard, and George Ezra have such alluring soul voices. And then, obviously, you have Leon Bridges on top of such an abundance of soul artists.
This music coupled with an Instagram full of vintage and classical pictures culminates in the Texan answer to Sam Cooke. Coming Home reached number 8 in the UK charts and number 6 in the US, and Bridges has a UK tour coming up in September, so we can expect big things from Leon Bridges.
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