CD Review: Give the People What They Want by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

The Brooklyn-based funk/soul revivalists' sixth album is splendidly produced and performed.

Give the People What They Want by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
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Give the People What They Want

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

(Daptone

****

Rarely has a record been so warmly welcomed as this one from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Brooklyn-based funk/soul revivalists. Finished 18 months ago, their sixth album was due to be released early last year, but then Jones, 57, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The singer admitted recently that she “thought that people were just going to buy it and remember me”, but thankfully her surgery proved successful and the album instead serves as a joyful celebration. Indeed, many listeners may assume that this was recorded in the euphoric aftermath of that health scare, such is the singer’s unfettered enthusiasm throughout. Splendidly produced and performed, as ever, by Bosco Mann and his tight-as-a-vice band, these are prime cuts of chunky analogue funk, but pleasingly varied, too. Retreat! and Get up and Get Out are rousing pro-girl anthems, Making Up and Breaking Up is a deliriously harmonious hit, while on People Don’t Get What They Deserve, Jones rails righteously against life’s injustices. A star is reborn.