Album Review: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Give The People What They Want

There's a romance that's omnipresent in every Sharon Jones' record. The crackle of the vinyl, the imperfections of a tinny lead microphone… On Jones' fifth long-player, the Georgian funk-soul sister eruditely channels her passion for James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Motown and beyond. Sure, Jones' voice once again swings hips, moves mountains and damns cheaters, but the carefully curated Dap-Kings once again prove the perfect support to place her startling versatility centre stage. Check the irresistible horny horns and swingerilliance in the first 20 seconds of People Don't Get What They Deserve or hear the drums echoing off the studio walls in Retreat – it's all so authentically rough around the edges, but all the more empowered for it. Whether she's harmonising on Get Up And Get Out or roaring her womanhood on Now I See, she reminds us that, frankly, they don't make records like this anymore.

That it was prepped and ready prior to Jones' sudden and mercifully brief fight with cancer in 2013 means Give The People What They Want maintains its own natural optimism and sense of celebration. It would be crass to suggest the album is a statement of victory having been written and recorded prior to her battle. What she does next may well be more personal but as it stands, her fifth long-player is crying out to be heard live.