Southern Avenue: Be The Love You Want - 2021


This third outing is probably the band's most complete and varied offering, as they dabble in soul, funk, jazz, r'n'b and blues to great effect. This is one that requires more and more listens to fully appreciate it, while not as instant as the first two, it has many, many hidden depths.


Listen to that intoxicating, rhythmic backing to the title track, for example, along with the clever guitar phrasing. It is a real grower of a track. There is a subtlety to the band's music now that maybe they didn't quite have before. A similar groovy rhythm introduces the sumptuous and seductive Control. It is as if Sade has found her way into the studio on those lush vocals. It still has a trademark big, muscular chorus, though. Don't Hesitate (Call Me) is a soft, soulful number with echoes of The Style Council floating around in there, as well as a jazzy mid-song break and some Santana-esque guitar. 

Push Now is infectiously funky in its now typical Southern Avenue style. Fences also drips with post 2000s-fashion soul. You know it when you hear it. It has a retro feel but also a modern one. Let's Get It Together has the band channelling their inner Marvin Gaye as they express their concern for the world's future in true seventies style. It is one of the best cuts on the album. I love the sound, the vibe and the message.


Heathen Hearts is a funky little gospelly hand-clapping and drumbeat-driven  short-ish interlude before the brassy funk kicks in again on Move Into The Light. It has a Chaka Khan, eighties funk feel about it. Love You Nice And Slow is also very eighties but this time in its funk-lite, loved-up air. Pressure is quirky and staccato. 


A gem of the album is the lovely Too Good To Be True, proper late night wine bar stuff. Oh man, I love that trumpet solo in the middle. Move On ends the album in lively funky fashion.


Good album - probably the best of the three.

Secondary, 2 of 8

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