★★★★
After playing musical chairs with record companies for a number of years, American soul shaker Eli Paperboy Reed has finally found a home with Yep Roc.
It’s that age-old story of a major label promising the world and not only not delivering but dropping the wannabe superstar. So back to basics it is. And taking this spiritual homecoming to heart, Reed’s fifth album positively crackles with retro grooves, bluesy beats and gritty funk. Underscoring it all is garage gospel and references to the heavenly, making My Way Home seem like it thinks the past 50 years of music didn’t happen.
The album was tracked across four days in Reed’s drummer’s Brooklyn loft-cum-recording-studio. This infuses My Way Home with a polished but raw energy. It’s immediately felt on opener ‘Hold Out’, where Reed is at his loosest, most screeching best. ‘Your Sins Will Find You Out’ maintains this frenetic pace. Record highlight ‘Movin’’ takes it down a notch with allusions to the crooner’s recent career upheavals, including the not-so-subtle lines, “I’ve been movin’, movin’ to a better home … where I won’t be alone”. And title track ‘My Way Home’ is a stirring, guts-bared ballad.
A thrilling, timeless throwback.
Eli Paperboy Reed’sMy Way Homeis available now through Yep Roc/Redeye.
