irma thomas - straight from the soul
recently when suffering a stretch of modern music fatigue i dropped this lovingly compiled set from this New Orleans 'queen of soul' into the player and all became right with the world. 24 tracks covering all various styles of 60's soul and pop. this stuff literally melts the heart and feeds the feet, with its excellent combination of self written classics and well chosen cover versions. ranging from r-n-b stompers ('teasing but you're pleasing'), to orchestral torch songs of epic emotion. hear the burning 'i need your love so bad' with its picked guitar, massive stand up bass, hammond organ swell and irma's vocals and tell me you don't feel the heartache and pain. breathtaking.
the fact that many of the tracks here feature such goosebump inducing moments says everything about the sheer breadth and quality on offer. whether it is the gospel overloaded 'straight from the heart', the honking sax parts on 'the hurts all gone', or the simple boogie-woogie piano riff of 'somebody told you' there are so many aural treasures that its almost too good to take in one sitting.
no track by track needed - there is simply not a dud track amongst' em.
a perfect perfect album.