free music friday: alice russell

Soul singer Alice Russell found her new album at the end of a rainbow. OK, not really, but it is called Pot Of Gold. Fnarr. Billed as “a rare, bold and adventurous undertaking”, Alice’s fourth solo opus follows hot on the heels of her brilliant Mr Scruff collaboration ‘Music Takes Me Up’ and finds her raring to snatch the crown of British soul from the likes of Adele and Duffy – she can, after all, belt out a tune better than either. Her voice is that big. Pot Of Gold is once again produced by longtime collaborator TM Juke and matches Alice’s gargantuan voice with a hulking great horn section and huge swells of layered strings to beef up the soulful ’60s pop arrangements and accents of funk.

Today’s free song is something of a resumé for the whole album. Blissfully soulful harmonies; check! A defiant call-and-response breakdown; check! Crisp drums and handclaps; check! A meeean bassline; check! A full on funk workout; check! It’s actually quite exhausting on first listen but it doesn’t take long to get into the swing of things and you know you’re onto a good thing when your legs start bouncing involuntarily. The CD is out here on November 24th through Alice’s own label Little Poppet but US readers can get it now through iTunes, courtesy of Six Degrees Records.

MP3: Alice Russell, ‘Got The Hunger?‘

Alice is currently on tour. Catch her at the following UK venues:

19.11.08 Hi-Fi Club, Leeds
21.11.08 Mint Lounge, Manchester
22.11.08 Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
25.11.08 Komedia, Brighton
26.11.08 Scala, London [album launch party]
03.12.08 The Junction, Cambridge
04.12.08 Thekla, Bristol
10.12.08 Brownes, Nottingham
11.12.08 Hare & Hounds, Birmingham

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: alice russell

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 10:56 pm and is filed under All A/V, free music friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.