CD Reviews

Various Artists | True Soul: Deep Sounds from the Left of Stax

Now-Again (2011)

By ZETH LUNDY | July 12, 2011

4.0 Stars

Soul hounds love deep, obscure shit — the deeper it is, the more obscure it is, the funkier it is, the more Southern it is, the better. So if you've already pricked up your soul-hound ears, dig this: Now-Again's two-volume compilation spotlighting the Little Rock, Arkansas label True Soul is a cratedigger's delight. Spread across two CDs and two DVDs is a vibrant document of a forgotten scene, ripe with funky 45s and turntablist fodder — wicky-wah guitars, butter-smooth flutes, big bari saxes, tight drum patterns that many would rightly kill for. A plethora of old photos, discographies, and Eothen "Egon" Alapatt's extensive liner notes are worth the price of admission — but dude, the music. Albert Smith's Wes-Montgomery-after-one-too-many-Js cover of "Come Together," Ren Smith's head-nodding anti-ode to air pollution ("Smog [Full Version]"), the lose-your-mind funkiness of York Wilborn's Psychedelic Six, and Thomas East's many silken soul-pop jams are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. While Now-Again is gunning for Reissue Label of the Year (True Soul is sandwiched between compilations of Indonesian psych-funk and pre-revolution Iranian psych-rock), this stuff is clearly intended to last you a booty-shaking lifetime.

Related: Active Child | You Are All I See, Review: Joyful Noise, Cardinal | Hymns, More

Active Child | You Are All I See
Pat Grossi used to be a choirboy, which is not surprising at all, given that his full-length debut under the Active Child moniker sounds like it was cut in some sort of dimly lit, hallowed hall under the cover of night.
Review: Joyful Noise
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
O'Brother | Garden Window
O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."
Guided by Voices | Let's Go Eat the Factory
The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.
Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions
Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero.
Brite Futures | Dark Past
A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.
A Place to Bury Strangers | Onwards to the Wall
Onwards to the Wall clocks in at 16 minutes and 35 seconds, and it could shatter into smithereens at any moment.
Cloud Nothings | Attack on Memory
With Attack on Memory , the third full-length from Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings, 20-year-old frontman Dylan Baldi approaches new, drastically darker material with the same empty-bottle angst that made his previous releases so appealing.
You Me at Six | Sinners Never Sleep
Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
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Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Arkansas, R&B, More

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