Liam Bailey’s latest offering is this retro-flecked little number. Silky, unrefined, yet radio-friendly, ‘You Better Leave Me’ is a simple tale of one man’s attempts to be rid of his woman. And rid of, she is! Despite tight production, the raw ache of his voice strikes a chord, particularly within the deeper, more thoughtful range of his vocals. Bailey’s voice is as smooth as butter, but with enough edge to avoid the dreaded middle-of-the-road status that proves so fatal for contemporary soulsters. (See Lemar for details.) He continues in the same vein as Aloe Blacc and Plan B- artists who are reviving the oft-forgotten genre, in lieu of the autotuned, haemorrhage –inducing songs that have been clogging the charts for too long now. He sings: ‘All I know I felt much younger/Now I feel the age’. The 22 year old Nottingham lad better not feel old too soon, because with an upcoming album and tour support for Brit Winner Jessie J, he’ll need to summon all the youth he can muster…
The soul revival is upon us! ‘Allebloodylujah! Marvin will be grooving in his grave.
