UK Soul Chart - 25th Jan 2021 - The Breakers

Breakers

01 - Darrius Willrich - Stay Here With Me (2021 Stay here With Me)

Already posted here

02 - Adeline - Whisper My Name (2021)

Already posted here

03 - Output/Input - Take A Stab feat Katie Holmes-Smith (2021)

Already posted here

04 - Darwin Hobbs - Get Ready (2021)

Already posted here

05 - Will Downing - Stand Up (2021 The Song Garden)

Already posted here

06 - Raquel Rodriguez - Undone (2021)

Already posted here

07 - Deborah Bond - Radio (2021)

Already posted here

08 - JD's Time Machine feat Cleveland P Jones - Agapesoul & U-Nam - KissofFreedom (2021)

Already posted here

09 - Maurice Mahon - Find Me (2020)

Already posted here

10 - Mary Cross - Promise (2021)

Already posted here

11 - Laura Rain and the Caesars - Closer 2 the Win (2021)

Already posted here

12 - HIL ST SOUL - Heaven Must Be Like This (2021)

Already posted here

13 - Malika Esdelle - I Go (2021)

Already posted here

14 - Mac Ayres - Where U Goin' Tonight (2021 Magic 8ball)

Already posted here

15 - Str4ta - Rhythm in Your Mind[2021]

Already posted here

Darwin Hobbs [2021] - Get Ready [Fair Trade]

First new release from Darwin Hobbs for some time as this looks like his first release since 2008?  I recall first listening to his 'Vertical' album in 2000 from which 'Everday', which featured Michael McDonald, got heavy rotation on the modern soul scene at the time. 

'Get Ready' was released on 15 Jan 2021. 

UK Soul Chart - 25th Jan 2021

The latest UK Soul chart for 25th Jan 2021.  

Links to new entries. For earlier entries follow UK Soul Chart link.

01 (2) Luxury Soul Family - Various Artists (Album)

02 (1) Sound Of Superbad Feat. Robert imtume Owens - Vibration

03 (4) Bey Bright - Soul Nostalgia 3 (Album)

04 (23) OsKeyz Feat. Conya Doss - 6019 (Album)

05 (7) The Groove Association Feat. Georgie B - It's Been So Long (Album)

06 (11) Aja Valle` - Mixed Emotions (Album)

07 (6) Josie Falbo - This Is Real / What You Do To Me

08 (8) Shaila Prospere - Under My Skin (Album)

09 (NE) Hil St Soul - Heaven Must Be Like This

Already posted here

10 (3) SouLutions - Anthology (Album)

11 (12) Tanqueray Hayward - Caught Up

12 (17) Diane Marsh - HornyFicational (Mixes)

13 (15) Reel People - Dancing On The Moon (EP)

14 (5) Papik - Sounds For The Open Road Vol. 2 (Album)

15 (16) Chris Kingdon - Baby it's You Feat. Mather / Colour Blind Feat. Kenny Wellington

16 (18) Tilly - Life After Love (Nigel Lowis Mixes)

17 (NE) Tree - Mrs Tree (Album)

Already posted here

18 (NE) Stokley Feat. The Bonfyre - Cascade

Already posted here

19 (NE) Kim Tavar - Movin'

Already posted here

20 (10) PrivatProjekt - Welcome (Album)

21 (NE) Tammy Harris - Love Don't Mean A Thing

Already posted here

22 (29) Geneivah - Sycamore

23 (NE) Mary Cross - Promise

Already posted here

24 (NE) Maysa - Soft Words

Already posted here

25 (NE) Sy Smith Feat. DominiqueXavier - Feeling Good

Already posted here

26 (20) Mather - Never Say Never Again (Album)

27 (13) CJ's Connection - Tell Her (Mixes)

28 (9) True Music Group - True Soul Vol. 1 (Album)

29 (NE) Laura Rain & The Caesars - Closer To The Win

Already posted here

30 (NE) Steffen Morrison - Soul Revolution (Album)

Already posted here

Steffen Morrison [2021] - Soul Revolution [Tall Tree] (Full Album)

New entry into UK Soul chart this week (25 Jan 2021) is Dutch singer, Steffen Morrison's, second album 'Soul Revolution' released 9 Oct 2020.  Best described as new 'old school' with a southern soul feel.

He released an EP 'Just Another Man' in Sep 2016 followed by a full album 'Moving On' in March 2018.

Full Album here

Positivity

Best track on the album, which has already had a single release in 2019.

Version Excursion - Be Thankful For What You Got (William DeVaughn)

I've just found yet another couple of covers of this classic released in the last month or so. William DeVaughn didn't release many records himself (you can read about him in the Discography I posted last year), but must be living very well, thank you very much, from royalties from this song. 

Orgone [2021] - Be Thankful For What You Got [3 Palm]

Taken from their new album 'Raw & Direct' released on 8 Jan 2021  is a live version.

The group includes Adryon de León who I featured a few days ago whith her new solo release.

Lucky Daye, Big Freedia & BJRNCK [2020] - Be Thankful For What You Got [Parlophone]

Released 4 Dec 2020

Second Hand Songs lists only 15 versions but I think I could easily list many others they haven't listed:

* flags a few of the better versions

Yo La Tengo (1998 sounds a bit 'flat' to me)

*DJ Maze (1999)

*Beres Hammond (1991) 

Peter Blakeley (1994 Blue-Eyed)

*Shug Jackson (1996 a good hip-hop version - I like this style of 'rhythmic' rap)

Cool Hipnoise (1998 very smooth & mellow version by Potuguese artist)

Omar with Angie Stone (2000)

Omar with Erykah Badu (2000) (I can't tell a great deal of difference between the two versions) 

Rocky Padilla (Live) (2001 - a live version from latin soul singer)

*The Winstons (2002 - good modern take by the band that brought us Color Him Father)

*Nick Rolfe (2003 - a decent neo soul version)

Wicked Minds feat Wreck, Face (2003 hip-hop version)

Kings of the City (2004 hip-hop version)

Fingazz (2005 - vocoder vocals)

Donald McCollum (2006 - neo soul version which doesn't add anything), 

Cleveland Watkiss (2008 - British vocalist version), 

Lawrence 'Lipbone' Redding (2009 - blue-eyed version), 

The Comptones (2009)

The Hit Nation (2010)

Maurice Davis (2010)

The Champagne Band (2010)

*Prezident Brown Feat. Ryan (2011)

Payaso (2011 hip-hop)

Block Station Feat. Arthur Miles (2011 a decent club version there's a few different mixes including a sugar dub mix))

*D'Wayne Wiggins, Too Short, Silk-E (2012 - some rappin' at the start but not through song), 

Vintage Lounge Orchestra Feat. Wendy Lewis (2012)

*Emily Gimble (2012 - a good female blue-eyed version)

B.A.D. Connection (2013 - speeded up house version), 

Androidboss (2014 - another 'vocodered' version!), 

The Unit Band (2014), 

Minga (2014 - female blue-eyed smooth jazz (ish) lounge version.), 

Ray Barnard (2014 - another blue-eyed version that doesn't add much)

Soul Club (2015)

High And Mighty Brass Band (2015 - don't be fooled by the name this has got some balls)

Christopher Crius (2015 Blue-Eyed 'carbon-copy)

*Billy Lofton (2015 - nice bversion by US singer now based in Australia) 

Zoe Leone (2015) several versions one with William Devaughn and another solo, 

Little Sara and the Night Owls (2016 - blue-eyed Seattle based group)

Deesmuve (2016 hip-hop)

David C. Johnson (2016 - carbon-copy)

Soul Unlimited (2016)

*Lady C (2017 - 'bluesy' acoustic version)

Jimmy Read Feat. King Kass (2017 - another thumping club/house version)

*Charlie Brown Superstar (2016 - thumping club version)

*Fo' Clips Eclpise (2018 - a decent 'rhyhmic' rap version), 

Pepe Marquez (2018 - lowrider / latin soul version), 

Earl Detrick (2018 - neo soul/R&B version),

The Space Lady (2018 - as name implies a 'spacy' / ambient version)

Richie Hart (2018 - guitar jazz inst.)

Raquel Rodriguez & Stan Taylor (2019 - a fairly 'loyal' modern cover), 

TheDJLawyer (2019 (probably Alan Coulthard?) - horrible 'disco' version), 

*The Notations (2019 - loyal cover from these veterans)

Greg Landau (2019 from Songs From LA Mission) 2 versions:

*Be Thankful (remix feat. Andy Allo) - good neo/lowrider version

Be Thankful (feat. Bryan Dyer)

Foster C K (2019 - neo soul/R&B version), 

*Talibah Safiya (2019 - a neo soul 'smoothed out' version), 

Alvin Garrett (2019 - neo soul/R&B version)

Detroit Soul Sensation (2019 - blue-eyed neo soul version)

*Abavuki (2019 - a tight jazz guitar inst. from an African artist), 

*Reginald Thomas (2019 - a slowed down Gospel ballad version - very different)

6twentytwo (2019 - just a bit of a 'mash-up' of beats this one)

TOPTEXAS DJNATO feat. Deesmuve (2020 - may be a mash-up of Deesmuve above?)

Terence Rico Bryant (2020 - slowed down Inst. version)

*Sharon McMahan (2020 - fairly loyal cover with amended/updated lyrics), 

J-Felix Feat. Sol Goodman (2020), 

*Henry Clarke (2020 - updated 'message' versions) 

Soul Messengers (2020 - modern soul take (ripped from Solar radio!)), 

Rick Leon James (2020 - slowed down jazz guitar inst. version)

Reggae versions:

Junior English (1976), 

Diana Heron (1979), 

Cornel Campbell (1980)

One Blood (1980), 

Winston Curtis (1984), 

Pure Silk & Ken Boothe (1992)

Bunny 'Rugs' Clarke (1999), 

Border Roots (2009)

Sugar Minott (2011)

Helen Rogers (2015),

Mechelle Melledee (2015) 

Linn And Freddie (2017), 

Carolene Thompson (2018),  

Prince Fatty (2019),

BTBTokko (2019), 

The Reggae Revolution (2019)

Dimas & The Same Song Band (2020)

I got a bit carried away with this exercise as I knew there must be more than 15 versions of the song (I think there are approx 86 listed above on top of the 15 on Second Hand Songs) so that's at least 100 versions and counting. I'm sure I could find more if I dug even deeper. There are a few I've left out because they are simply not very good.

Curiously, there aren't that many pre 2000. It seems to have been really jumped on after around 2010 - every man and his dog seems to want to cover it, but apart from a few (marked with '*'), they are all too similar to the original so why bother?  

Gabrielle Hill [2021] - Value My Energy [Self Released] (Full Album)

A nice deep cut from Gabrielle Hill from her latest 7 track album/EP(?) 'Eclectic' released 16 Jan 2021.

This is easily the best track on the album, the only other tracks that may be of interest to soulies are 'I'm Gone' and 'What's Wrong With Me' (previously released as  a single in 2018) the remainder of the album is pure R&B.

Full Album/EP here

Celeste [2021] - Love Is Back [Polydor]

British singer Celeste releases her debut album 'Not Your Muse' on 29 Jan 2021 from which this single is taken which was officially released 31 Dec 2020.  Shades of Amy Winehouse here.

Raquel Rodriguez [2021] - Undone [Blue Dream]

Last year I posted an EP by Raquel Rodriguez & Stan Taylor 'Sunday's Best' which featured covers of sweet soul classics. I also posted many of her earlier recordings in the same post. 

She's just released a new single on 22 Jan 2021, which is a more contemporary Neo Soul outing.

If you like her sound then check out many more of her recordings on her YT channel.

The Lovetown Allstars Feat. Gary B. Poole [2021] - Walk This Way [Self Released]

I posted this last week, but at the time only a 60 second sample of the tune was available. It's now been released (24 Jan 2021) and the full track is available on YT so here it is in it's full glory.  

As I said then, it's a cover of Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' from 1975 which was a massive hip-hop hit from Run-D.M.C. in 1986, but don't let that deter you as this is unrecognisable from either of the previous versions. It's a completely different, soulful arrangement.

Acantha Lang [2021] - Lois Lang [Live]

Acantha Lang is a new talent who released her debut single 'He Said, She Said' in Dec 2020 which is a funky affair. She follows that up on 10 Feb 2021 with the release of 'Lois Lang' which is a tribute to her mother whose name is Lois Lang.

Acantha was born and raised in New Orleans. moved to New York where she headlined her  own blues show in Harlem, but now lives in London. 

To promote her new single she has released a live video which was recorded pre-pandemic.

If you like her sound, i.e. 'real soul', then she has a whole playlist of live acoustic covers of soul classics including 'It's A Man's World', 'Neither One Of Us', 'A Change Is Gonna Come' and many more (there are 30 in total) all recorded between Aug 2020 and the last one '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' was posted only yesterday.  This woman sure can sing.

Mario Biondi [2021] - Canteloupe Island (DJ Meme Remix) [Beyond Srl]

Italy's answer to Barry White, Mario Biondi releases a new album on 29 Jan 2021 titled 'Dare'. The only track currently available is his version of Herbie Hancock's Canteloupe Island (DJ Meme Remix), which Hancock wrote and recorded in 1964 on Empyrean Isles whilst he was a member of Miles Davis quintet.  The song was voted #19 in Jazz24.org 'Jazz 100: One Hundred Quintessential Jazz Songs'. 

Donald Byrd covered it in 1964 and US3 had a hit with a hip-hop version caled Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) in 1992. There are dozens of other versions one of the latest by Manhattan Transfer in 2018 titled Cantaloop (Flip Out).

Herbie Hancock [1964] - Canteloupe Island [Blue Note #BLP 4175]

Here are the masters at work! Herbie Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard (cornet) d. 2008, Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums) d.1997 and featuring Joe Henderson (saxophone) d. 2001, who wasn't on the original recording in 1964. This video was recorded in 1985.

Rex Hush [2020] - Pull Over / Summer Breeze [Izipho Soul #ZP55]

A current release from Izipho Soul is an ultra rare soul/funk tune by Rex Hush originally released on private press 'Break-A-Way' with vocal / instrumental in 1983.  It is the other side which is of most interest to 'soulies', a previously unreleased soul ballad called 'Summer Breeze' so I'll post that first.

Summer Breeze

s7oul · Rex Hush - Summer Breeze

Pull Over

Machine [1979] - There But For The Grace Of God Go I [RCA Victor #PD-11457]

Cannonball Records have recently reissued a couple of unreleased 80s tracks by Jay 'Machine' Stovall (unearthed by DJ Camembert (eh haw, eh haw, eh haw) aka Yann Vatiste) which reminded me of a monster club sound circa 1979.  I don't know how well known this track is for those who 'weren't there'. I always had a soft spot for it but hadn't listened to it in years and was pleasantly surprised as I'd just dismissed it as a pop/disco tune when in fact the vocals are actually quite soulful (or am I just comparing it with today's standards?). 

What I hadn't realised was that it was written and produced by August Darnell (aka Kid Creole) and that he was in the group along with Jay Stovall.  Which, listening to it again, does make sense as it sort of sits between his Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (1976-79) and Kid Creole  & The Coconuts (1980s) sound and you can see the progression.  Also, Kid Creole & The Cocunuts actually released a version of the song in 1980 - a more latin/carribean oriented version of it.

Machine were a studio disco band who released two albums, 'Machine' in 1979 and 'Movin' On' in 1980. Neither of the albums saw a UK release, in fact the only Machine record to get a UK release was 'There But For....', although they released 2 singles from each album. Much of their material was disco or just down right odd, but there were a couple of tracks of interest.

Mr Destiny

This is a mellow stepper which has been well known and respected by those in the know since release on the 'Machine' album, but it doesn't appear to be widely known.

The sound is a bit low on this track but it's the only one available.  

Is It Love

80s modern soul / boogie with a heavy (almost Chic'ish) bassline. A New York Disco 'Loft' classic played at the Paradise Garage. I don't ever recall this being played in the UK. It was on the second Machine album 'Movin' On' and also got a single release on 7" & 12".

You Didn't Really Love Me At All

Album only track from the second album 'Moving On' released in 1980. Blue-eyed vocals, which I presume are Jay Stovall's.  I would 'classify' this as 'Yacht Soul'.

ICE THA ONE & HeyBombay [2021] - FYF [EST SDE ENT]

This is an interesting one. It's got mixture of R&B, Neo Soul, Jazz and even hip-hop. It's from producer HeyBombay, released 22 Jan 2021.