Hard Expectations is the third album from Mahalia Barnes + The Soul Mates. It’s been three years in the making, so the title track may be a commentary on how this tight soul outfit feel releasing some new music into the world. If there were nerves though, they don’t show. This is one of the best soul albums I’ve ever heard.
Soul music, real soul music, seems to be a dying art these days. Today what passes as soul seems to have vocal acrobatics and rap breaks. While musical evolution can be important and exciting, it’s refreshing to hear an album like this that takes a genre back to its roots. Listening to Hard Expectations, it’s easy to mistake it for a collection of covers. Its songs are the kind of songs I thought people don’t write anymore. However, in truth just two tracks aren’t original. Curtis Mayfield’s “Hard Times” and The Pointer Sisters “You Gotta Believe” sit comfortably along numbers penned by The Soul Mates and Mahalia’s longtime family friend Don Walker.
Opening track “Love is Fleeting” starts the album with a bang. There’s such a strength in this song. Love might be fleeting, but she’s going to get her man. There’s more strength in the Don Walker-penned “Hard Expectations,” a track which reminds a man that he needs to measure up and meet the standard.
After a few hard-hitting numbers, Mahalia and her band slow things down with “My Love.” There’s a gorgeous tenderness in this song. Her voice is complemented beautiful by the warm brass section and her superb backing vocalists.
“Shake Things Up” might be my favourite track on the album. It’s got such a great groove and a fantastic message about going your own way. “Three Times + I’m Gone” has such an infectious honky-tonk feel. I can imagine being in a smoky bar somewhere, seeing Mahalia and her band play this, and it sounding just like it does on the record. There’s such a spontaneous energy about what they’ve laid down here.
In truth I could tell you how good every single song is though. There are no filler tracks here. That’s unsurprising considering the level of talent in this band. Think Joe Bonamassa, Kirk Fletcher, Prinnie Stevens, and Jade McRae, to name but a few. And of course, the incomparable Mahalia Barnes. Its no coincidence her name is out front and centre. If there was any doubt about it, this album establishes Mahalia Barnes as one of the greatest soul voices in this country.
Hard Expectations is in stores now.
Image used with permission from Ferris Davies PRM