Bible of Love restores a good portion of the respect I’ve lost for Snoop Dogg in recent years. The 134-minute gospel album counteracts the embarrassing buffoonery for which he’s become known. Not surprisingly, Snoop doesn’t appear on the best selections. The life-affirming “Come as You Are” features the gospel luminaries Mary Mary and Marvin Sapp. Faith Evans’ lead vocals on “Saved” offer spiritual redemption. The vibrant contributions of notable vocalists including Kim Burrell, Daz Dillinger (!), Patti LaBelle, Fred Hammond and Charlie Wilson prevent the lengthy Bible of Love from becoming a slog. Snoop pops on up songs including Rance Allen’s “Blessing Me Again”, but only on the closing track “Words Are Few” does he get in the way of the rapturous message.
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I featured Reggie and the Full Effect in my weekly segment on KCUR.
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Hours after railing against nostalgia in the previous There Stands the Glass post, I was floored by Meshell Ndegeocello’s Ventriloquism. The stunning collection of covers of pop-leaning ‘80s and ‘90s R&B songs was love at first listen. An ingenious reading of TLC’s “Waterfalls” typifies her incredibly smart but not excessively clever approach.
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I’ve been predisposed to dislike Nathaniel Rateliff since his breakout hit- an exploitative gospel goof that bugs the bejeezus out of me- began befouling the airwaves in 2015. Even so, Rateliff & the Night Sweats won me over the first time I saw the band. I begrudgingly acknowledge that the ensemble’s soulful new album Tearing at the Seams is a worthy successor to Van Morrison’s classic His Band and the Street Choir and Bruce Springsteen’s epic The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.
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The members of Cameo would surely approve of the four sweet sticky things on Jeremih’s The Chocolate Box EP. Here’s “Nympho”.
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While I’d prefer that much of Transparent Water didn’t sound like first-take improvisations, the collaboration between Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and the Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita is gorgeous.
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The aesthetically pure punk label Dischord has issued an album of ostentatious guitar shredding. Backed by the Fugazi rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty, guitarist Anthony Pirog makes like Joe Satriani on The Messthetics.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
