Candi Staton - Who’s Hurting Now [2009]

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tracklist:
Breaking Down Slow
Who’s Hurting Now?
I Feel The Same
Mercy Now
I Don’t Know
Lonely Don’t
Get Your Hands Dirty
Dust On My Pillow
Cry Baby Cry
I Don’t Want For Anything
Light In Your Eyes

If all you know of Candi Staton is the disco hit ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ you will have a real eye-opener in store. This is a stunning and passionate piece of classic Southern Gospel/Blues and shows that Ms Staton is truly one of the great soul singers.

Her voice is powerful and impassioned and listening to her telling off an errant lover – ‘Who’s Hurting Now’ – or pleading for peace for us all – ‘Mercy Now’ – she completely owns the songs and lets the words tell their own story without unnecessary vibrato or fake emotion. No over the top heartbreakers here.

Song after song is dealt with on its merits and the lyrics allowed to hold the centre stage. ‘Lonely Don’t’ is a perfect example: the words tell the story and her delivery helps the listener into a world where being on your own is the better option. Her performance is understated but the experience in her voice and the way that she just explains without hectoring makes the listener complicit in the experience.

Soul music at its best is a fully emotional experience and when the singer has the wealth of experience and talent that Candi Staton has at hand it is so much more than the bump ‘n grind of modern R&B – it becomes a melding of souls.

It is impossible to listen to this album without becoming entranced by her voice with its richness and timbre but you are also completely sold on the songs and the production – the whole package is terrific and it is truly wonderful to find that soul music is still being produced and that one of the great performers is still being given the space to make it.
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