Jon Pareles Gets Stoned
We poked fun at Jon Pareles earlier this week, but truth be told, the Times' music critic has great taste and in last Sunday's paper gave a shoutout to an underrated artist who never gets enough press.
The English songwriter Lewis Taylor has been recording since the mid-1980's: first as Sheriff Jack and then under his own name. Stoned (Hacktone/Shout! Factory), an expanded reissue of his 2003 album Stoned Part 1, is his belated American debut. Recording most of the instruments and voices himself, he's a proud anachronism who's equally fond of 1970's smooth soul and 1960's studio psychedelia while toying with samples, too. He puts his influences - Brian Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Edgar Winter, the Isley Brothers - right on the surface. Yet amid the self-conscious borrowings and the suavely infatuated lyrics, he still taps into the benign affection and experimental undercurrents of the era he missed.I've been listening to the newer Stoned Pt II for the last few months, and that's where this cut's from.
Lewis Taylor - "Shame 2" (MP3 Link Expired)
Yes, Stereogum just got all neo-soul on your ass.
Apparently Lewis Taylor recorded a sweet cover of Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" a few years back. If you got audio, send our way.
Posted at 9:45 AM in MP3
Tags: Jon Pareles
His self-titled album on Island is a bit of a lost classic - especially the songs "Bittersweet" and "Lucky". Pretty much every other album he's done has been deemed to inconsistent to garner much recognition...
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And if you like Lewis Taylor, you'll totally dig James Hunter, yet another undiscovered UK soul sensation. I swore I was listening to Sam Cooke when I put it on.
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This cat is amazing--his song "Melt Away" is phenomenal.
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Coming form someone who mostly digs rock but all kinds of things as well, I'm surprisingly loving this. This is sooo going on my iPod.
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The Kruder and Dorfmeister remix of Lucky is amazing. Like Marvin Gaye... over a spacey old motown beat.
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