the dope report

Brooklyn retro soul act Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings’ latest LP, I Learned the Hard Way is a triumph of sass, brass and swagger. Released this week on Jones’ 54th birthday, it’s so good the legendary Smoky Robinson opened up for Sharon in Austin, Texas and she’s clearly on the streak of a lifetime; playing Letterman, Colbert, Fallon and the Apollo this Spring. Whenever it all finally ends, count yourself lucky to have witnessed it.

Jones’ story is legend to her fans but still strange to newcomers. She’s a former session singer turned Riker’s Island corrections officer who had, theoretically aged out of a music career. But along came a younger generation of audiophiles, the Dap-Kings, partial to playing real instruments and recording with analog techniques abandoned in the ‘70s.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings tested the waters with Dap-Dippin with the Dap-Kings in 2002. Naturally in 2005 proved preternaturally hip, and 100 Days, 100 Nights in 2007 indicated a full-on soul revival was imminent. When the Dap-Kings engineered Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black sound, the attention splashed back on Jones, setting the global stage for 2010’s I Learned the Hard Way.

Dap-King Bosco Mann pens many of the hits, and everything gets arranged by the Dap-Kings then recorded on 8-track Ampex tape at Daptone Records’ House of Soul, overseen by Gabriel Roth. The process creates a rich, bright, and clear sound that defies the timbre of modern recordings, where digital compression equalizes, amplifies and crushes each track into a radio-ready sledghammer.

On the new, top-notch track “Window Shopping”, bright, clean chords chime from Binky Griptite’s guitar, as Jones’ background vocalists open up with a classic ‘do-doot do-doot dooo-DOOT!’

Drummer Homer Steinweiss drops a crisp trap kit beat underneath and alongside bassist Bosco Mann’s smooth rhymthm. Sharon starts informally rapping with the listener:

‘You know, when you walk down the street it seems like, uh being with your man, his eyes just turn every time a woman walks by, like he just can’t even decide? He gets whiplash, he’s looking so hard; can’t make up his mind. And I think I know this relationship is the same way. ... You know what? Let me tell you baby:

And then Sharon puts the smack down: I’m through with your window shopping, baby.

Younger vocalists might have bigger, newer pipes, but Sharon effortlessly bests them with experience and attitude. Her voice creates an intimacy foreign to the plastic, vocodered Beyonces of our time. Stories that glorify strong women making tough decisions about who to keep and who let go have become pop cliché. But when Sharon tells them, it’s clear she’s speaking from experience.

Taken with dynamite recession anthem “Money”, I Learned the Hard Way grooves and rocks, second only to one of the Dap-Kings’ legendary live shows. The record is an essential addition to the Dap-Kings’ canon and a gift to vintage music lovers everywhere.

[Download Sharon Jones track I Learned the Hard Way]