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When Sharon Jones died of pancreatic cancer last
year, the world lost its greatest exponent of vintage soul; that she’d first
hit her stride in the ’00s with the revivalist, detail-obsessed Daptone label,
made the accomplishment all the more striking.
Recorded over her last two years
with longtime sidemen, genre-masters all, Jones meets darkness with hope on
this denouement. “A Matter of Time” envisions world peace; “Come
and Be a Winner” is a funky pep talk. It’s easy to read themes of
mortality into the lyrics, but this is a stirringly indefatigable
farewell.
Her Brooklyn church choir joins in for “Call On God,” and
the LP ends heartbreakingly with Jones chuckling or crying – it’s hard to tell.
Maybe both.
