MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS - GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

This album was due last year, but was put on hold while Jones battled cancer.  Now, wonderfully, she has a clean bill of health, back in business, and business is good.  One of the premiere soul  acts of our time, Jones and Co. continue to mine the classic 60's sounds, with just enough modern touches to belong in this time as well.  Opener Retreat! has a great girl-group sound, The Supremes as if produced by Phil Spector.  But the Daptone Records pay-off is in the glorious arrangement with brilliant horns and bells, awash in big echo.  Things get funkier on Stranger To My Happiness, a soulful strut, Jones telling it like it is, this time with everyone playing and singing sharp, sassy lines.

It's hard to overstate how integral the horns are to these songs, certainly one of the joys of the Dap-Kings records, but all the parts contribute to the joy for soul fans.  The background vocals hit perfectly, answering Jones' lead lines like horn stabs of their own, in the Curtis Mayfield-styled We Get Along.  Lead guitar licks are short and sweet fills, finding the right spots in between horns and vocals.  Pushing it all is the wonderful Daptone rhythm section, sleek and tight, as well-oiled as the fabled Funk Brothers, from bass to bongos.  And before anyone says retro, no 60's act had the great separation and depth of listening field found here, modern production just giving us more opportunity to hear the instruments in their full clarity.  Glad to have you back, Ms. Jones, and so quickly.