Soul

Eric Church

Released on 23/04/2021 by EMI Music Nashville (ERN)
Main artists: Eric Church
Genre: Country

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Eric Church is known in Nashville as the spiritual descendent of Merle Haggard, but a listen to his incredibly fun live records, like the 61 Days in Church series, shows that his influences run deep and wide, as he covers Cheap Trick, The Band, Billy Joel, the Allman Brothers, Motown and more. On Soul, the second half of his two-part Heart & Soul album, he's always country—but he also wears those influences more openly on his sleeve than he ever has in his own music. (The same goes for Heart.) The freewheelin', loose and easy "Where I Wanna Be" gets right into a Band groove, with Church borrowing Levon Helm's rambling, effortless style. He and his own band, including impeccable backing vocalist Joanna Cotten, wear it well. More improbably, "Look Good and You Know It" channels Elton John and maybe even Mott the Hoople. Opening with a high-hat shimmer and reach-for-the-heavens gospel vocals, it rolls into a cool glam strut—then swerves into Church affecting a soul-man register. Nothing about the last two sentences makes sense on paper, and yet it works to delightful effect. There's also plenty of old-school Church here, like "Hell of a View," a raise-the-lighter and sing-along charmer that combines the singer's romantic ("I paint with my old Gibson/ You paint your purple sky") and rebellious ("I caught your wings on fire when I smoked my Bronco tires out of that town") sides—dripping with the nostalgia he loves—in one song. It's not an Eric Church record unless there's at least one "take this (fill in the blank) and shove it" song, and "Break it Kind of Guy" fits the bad-ass bill: "Don't tell me how to do it/ And don't tell me how to don't/ Don't tell me how to wing it/ I wing it how I want/ And don't tell me how to sing it/ It's my damn song." The difference this time? With Southern-rock blues guitar, disco drums and a falsetto rally cry of "I tell my eagle where to fly," it's funky and muscular and outlaw in a whole new way. (Hello, Black Keys? Found a country song for you to cover.) "Rock & Roll Found Me" shuffles and slithers on a blues vibe and "Bright Side Girl" is one of the sweetest love songs he's ever written. Acoustic closer "Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones" spins a completely imaginative tale of a hard-luck kid born to two Skynyrd fans—and ends with a M. Night Shymalan punchline: The kid is the son of Curtis Loew, as in the blues man from "The Ballad of Curtis Loew." In someone else's hands, it would be an eye-roller, but music superfan Church somehow makes it feel tender-hearted. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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Soul

Eric Church

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Rock & Roll Found Me