ALBUM REVIEW: Lee Fields | Top UK Fashion & Music BlogFashion Soundtrack

Gabriella Swerling gets back into the groove with some good old-fashioned soul and rediscovers the wonders of musical makeovers…

“I told her this time I’m gone, it would never be the same. You feel left all alone – only you to blame,” growls Lee Fields. He takes one breath before allowing himself to remember and live through the painful mysteries which inspired such lyrics. But when he exhales, you’re right there with him. Riding the wave of electric woes that have grown louder to support his tuneful wailing: “Ohhhhhh woahhhhh paralyyyyzed, so paralyzed I can see it in your eyes. So hold me, ‘cos this is the end…”

Lee Fields is back. That raw, gravelly swagger that we have desperately missed since it became all the rage for child popstars to dominate radio waves and column inches with their spliff-smoking and twerking. And, thank god, just as the PR machines of Disney and the Directioners are about to go into meltdown-mode, Lee Fields is back.

Swooping in like some uncaped and unmasked grooving superhero, he arrives just in time to save the day and inject some real soul into the untuned world.

The year was 1967, and Lee Fields had just finished singing a set at Tom Woodards, a juke joint tucked away in a forest. It was one of those rough-and-tumble, liquor license–free settings that cooked on the weekends and accepted no half-assed performances. You gave it all, or you didn’t get on stage. Fields was just 16 years old when he performed there, and when a well-dressed man handed him his business card with a New York City address, telling him that was where he needed to be. If Fields wanted to make it big like his heroes Otis Redding, James Brown and Percy Sledge, he would have to leave behind his three siblings and the small house his construction worker father had worked so hard to pay for. So he left. With $2 to his name and stars in his eyes, Lee Fields began his tumultuous journey.

Fields is a rarity in today’s music scene. It’s difficult to think of an active performer who can rival his experience and expertise. Almost half a century of seasoned music-making has given 63-year-old Fields the edge – he’s an old dog, but boy can he whip out the new tricks. And since releasing his first album in 1969, that’s exactly what his third album, Emma Jean, proves. Think James Brown reincarnated – but this time Amy Winehouse has been and gone and left her mark. This is soul revamped for the hyper-modern, hyperactive audience. Soul music is a beautiful, temperamental thing. But rather than be content with being crowned a master of his art, Fields pushes against parameters to refresh his genre and give those ancient frustrations of money, love and loss a hip new makeover.

Fields doesn’t just get down, he’s down with the kids.

And now the ultimate cool cat is more focused than ever. Arriving at a time when many new artists are trying to emulate the 1960s soul scene he was part of, he’s the really real deal. The album’s first single, “Magnolia”, is a refreshed cover of the JJ Cale track that embodies the Tulsa Sound he helped create. Having been on the road and touring all over the world for the best part of a decade, Fields’ live performances promise to be full of his tireless raw energy. Produced by Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records – Fields’ latest work is part of a much greater vision. A slick blend of contemporary and traditional dominate this record company who reincarnate the ethos, riffs and vision of those sixties soul stars – and give them a modern makeover.

The funk-soul veteran has teamed up with The Expressions for the third time for his latest album. His raucous-yet-tender vocals are always underpinned with a groovy bass line but it’s so much more than just toe-tapping stuff. The artists you hear backing Fields are the same team of top-notch musicians who have backed the likes of Adele, Jay-Z and Aloe Blacc to name a few. There’s a painful wisdom to his songwriting but this is softened by the harmonising lull of The Expressions who sing as the supportive, syncopated friends, picking up the pieces. His final track “Don’t Leave Me This Way” laments lost love in such a way that would make Al Green proud.

“We’re not trying to re-duplicate something that was there,” explains Fields. “We’re trying to innovate, and create from the fibre of what it is.”

Emma Jean was partially recorded in Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys’ Nashville studio hence the immediately recognisable country soul and blues-rock influence. Without a doubt, the most poignant track on the album is “Paralyzed”, which Auerbach wrote. Tinkering electric twangs carry Fields’ powerful voice, leaving you lamenting a lost love that might never have been yours, but certainly hits you right in the heart.

No one can call Emma Jean a “throwback.” It hints at something familiar and indebted to Motown, Philadelphia, jazz, blues, soul and of course the likes of Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. But although the sounds and feelings are familiar, the approaches to that well-loved genre is something else completely. Something that is more preoccupied with updating and redefining the future of soul music than following past formulas. Something decidedly Lee Fields.

New album Emma Jean out on Truth & Soul on 2^nd June 2014

EMMA JEAN TRACKLISTING

01. Just Can’t Win

02. Magnolia

03. Paralyzed

04. Standing By Your Side

05. Eye To Eye

06. In The Woods

07. All I Need

08. Still Gets Me Down

09. Talk To Somebody

10. Stone Angel