Day two of the 7 days of soul challenge brings me to a song I first heard via Heartbreak Radio:
The Arcs: Stay In My Corner (Nonesuch, 2015, Yours, Dreamily)
The Arcs pairs Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys with Leon Michels of Truth and Soul Records plus a crack team of New York’s retro-soul studio musicians including drummer Homer Steinweiss and bassist Nick Movshon. I confess, when I first heard about this project in the late spring, I was looking forward to see how their album, Yours, Dreamily would turn out but totally forgot that it came out, um, in September. Oops.
That said, “Stay In My Corner,” stayed in heavy rotation for much the year. It’s got this perfect blend between the kind of Southern fried blues sound the Black Keys are known for – weighty and a touch distorted – with the kind of bright, soulful flair that Michels and company have been cooking up in Brooklyn since the days of Desco. It’s a deeply romantic song (even though, unexpectedly, it’s dedicated to the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight since the single’s release was timed with that rather disappointing bout (they couldn’t have known that, but still). Now, you’ll have to excuse me while I go catch up with Yours, Dreamily.
chatter