It often feels that for a real authentic flavor you need to turn to your stack of Motown and Stax 45s but Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes have all the right ingredients to get your hips grindin’ and your hearts sighin’.
Baby Caught The Bus is the band’s debut album and it’s 11 tracks of hard-edged rhythm and blues, featuring a full band with horn section and piano, the Rackettes back-up singers and Clairy Browne’s smokey vocals. Frankie is an upbeat dance hall track peppered with loose and limber lead breaks while I’ll Be Fine sees the band nailing it with a passionate gospel number. She Plays Up To You has a more contemporary feel to it with sultry vocal tones and could find popularity with the Duffy and Amy fans, but the band is still not even close to pushing the neo-soul envelope. For the most part Clairy’s voice lies somewhere between Diana Ross and Koko Taylor: sweet and soulful one minute, dirty and grinding the next.
The Rackettes backing vocals are perfectly complementary and necessary in the band, never over hadowing Clairy’s voice and their reworking of Bang Bang by Sonny and Cher really shines as a result, making it a fantastic inclusion on the album.
Aeroplane deserves a special mention, with its infectious rollin’ piano riff (reminiscent of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band) luring you in and its hard hitting chorus cementing it as a standout song on the album.
Baby Caught The Bus is a winner. It grinds and grooves in all the right places. It can get you shaking your hips or dimming the lights and slipping into something more comfortable. An album made by talented musicians who know their game and the genre they play like the back of their hand.
BY KRYSTAL MAYNARD
Best Track : Aeroplane
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In A Word : Party-starter
