Laura Cole’s Northern Soul
Dirty Cheat
Laura Cole
Independent Release, 2015
With a voice that’s equal parts honey and whiskey, Laura Cole has released a sultry retro soul album which shakes and shimmies at every turn.
With her first full length release, “Dirty Cheat,” Cole’s sound is suggestive of an era with the collective intimacy of drive-in theaters, the national excitement of a space race, and global foreboding of impending atomic doom. And you know, the world just kept on spinning anyhow to the bluesy beats subjugated by white suburban teens from sharecroppers who’d wandered far from home.
The majority of the songs here focus on heartbreak and the detritus of it’s messy fallout. The bright and singularly angular guitar playing is smoothed out by the finespun and mellow organ playing opposite.
“Week There One Day” seems almost like a cabaret number with an upbeat organ riff and a sassy carnival-esque drum beat to drive it. With “Let it Roll” she resigns herself to the passing of a relationship which she had greater hopes for. The title track’s captivating guitar riff is deceptively simple and reveals a restless spirit chomping at the bit to explode.
One might think Cole would sound bitter with her bleak outlook on love, but there’s a hopefulness in her voice.If all your favorite songs were recorded before 1966this is a disc worth checking out. Laura Cole could well be fronting the next wave of blue-eyed soul.
