Luxury Soul 2024

Yes, here we go again. The best indie soul compilation you can find is back with its 2024 edition, compiled by Ralph Tee. 35 tracks in total, spread over three CDs, with some of the pieces already been mentioned on these pages, like new songs by Will Downing, Paulette McWilliams, Natasha Watts, Con Funk Shun, or Lynn Davis. We can’t go into detail of all the tracks here, but needless to say, as always, there are a lot of amazing new finds, like a blistering retro-sounding Heather Haywood, ex singer of The Cool Notes, with Sugar Rainbow and their brilliant early 80s style “Think About”. Or the wonderful, thick voice of Felece Tillman on the sweet and soulful “Brighter Love”. There are some strange adds here, too. Like the very nerve-wracking, extremely contrived voice of Costella on “Intoxicated Love” and its obvious histrionics.

We also get a pretty elegant and sultry “Whatcha Gonna Do” by Robert Gee. I also dig a new track by singer and songwriter Natalie Duncan from Nottingham. Yes, the lady who released and album on Verve back in 2012 called “Devil In Me”. “Are You Getting Enough” sounds like the perfect soul/pop song with a voice both unobtrusive and thrilling at the same time. And of course you can’t go wrong with the wonderful Carol Riddick. She is featured here with the excellent “I Love Me Too”. Smooth and classy as always. Speaking of which: Kea! What a great discovery. Her jazzy “We Made It Thru” shines like a diamond. Brilliant hook. Stunning voice. Superb production work by Gerald Craig Glanville. There is also the disappointing new track by legendary Narada Michael Walden. His “Baby Let’s Go” sounds like a contender for the Eurovision Song Contest.

James Day and Eddie Stokes have written and produced the wonderfully swaying, feel-good soul of “Freeway”, performed by Stokes & Machine feat. Cleveland Jones. Mike Lindup (of Level 42) is also featured with a track from his great new album “Changes 2”: “Could It Really Be Me?” features Tony Momrelle and Alex Wilson. We get more quality soul with the shuffling “Keep On Giving” by Shaila Prospere, some more jazzy flavors on “Hidden Highs” by Zaimie, and a great new track from Kloud 9. On “Don’t Stop”, they feature singer Kenya on a breezy, smoothly flowing soul ditty. And it feels good to hear the wonderful voice of Vivienne McKone again. I almost forgot about her. She is featured on a perfect midtempo soul swayer by The Requestors called “Love Has To Be Easy”. This compilation series is always worth the trip. Please also have a look on my past reviews:
Luxury Soul 2015
Luxury Soul 2016
Luxury Soul 2017
Luxury Soul 2018
Luxury Soul 2019
Luxury Soul 2020
Luxury Soul 2021
Luxury Soul 2022
Luxury Soul 2023