If Barry White and James Brown had a love child, Charles Bradley would be it. Bradley also harbours the same gritty, soulful growl the Godfather of Soul injected into his music.
Despite being in the music game for around two decades, this is only Bradley's second offering after his first album in 2011, No Time For Dreaming, cemented him as a true soul force to be reckoned with.
In Victim Of Love, Bradley channels Marvin Gaye's melancholia, but manages to keep Brown's dirty edge, his voice screeching and grinding through the tracks. No wonder he's known as “The Screaming Eagle of Soul”.
Strictly Reserved For You opens the album. Bradley is serenading his woman – “I got the love, baby/I got love, strictly reserved for you and me” – but it's all very gentleman-like and without the “let's get naked, baby” Barry White lusciousness. The tempo kicks up in Love Bug Blues, with Bradley's voice breaking though the funk backing vocals like a freight train as he pleads “burn, burn”.
The funk soul train really hammers on home though in Confusion, easily the most experimental track on the album, layered with quirky psychedelic sound effects and Bradley's voice echoing on in the background. Crying In The Chapel sees Bradley return to those dusty soul roots, cooing, “Oooh, I'm crying in the chapel, baby/You stole my love, darling”.
At 65, it may have taken Bradley a while to get his own groove going, but thank goodness he waited. Bradley proves he's got the passion and pain to push through into his music that artists a third of his age can only dream of.
