Introducing Song Bar’s first new album review of 2021, appropriately with an excellent debut LP, Aaron Frazer has a high, falsetto soul voice reminiscent of Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield, especially the latter on the single Bad News, but throughout this high-class LP, it is all good news. The Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-raised songwriter, who is also known as multi-instrumentalist and co-lead singer for Durand Jones & The Indications, has a retro feel and look – something more akin to a clean-cut 1950s, but his influences are clearly from the next two decades. On Over You, for example, there’s a hybrid of 60s soul and fast 70s funk, and part of the sound is certainly brought out by producer and half of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and his antique Nashville studio where it was recorded. The album all available to listen below, but other standout tracks on from a very consistent 12 include the slower You Don’t Wanna Be My Baby, Girl On The Phone with fabulous piano and horn parts, and the bluesy, gospel-style closer, Leanin’ On Your Everylasting Love. Co-released on Easy Eye Sound and Dead Oceans. More on Aaron Frazer here.
Feel free to also check out our favourite albums of 2020 here:
Fiona Apple to Lianne La Havas to Yves Tumor: favourite albums of 2020 – Part 1
Agnes Obel to Bob Dylan, Phoebe Bridgers to Sault: favourite albums of 2020 – Part 2
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