I also don't want to define Sharon Jones like that when her music with the Dap-Kings has been such a beacon of quality and righteousness these last 12 years since the release of 2002's Dap Dipping With Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. When I got onboard with 2007's 100 Days, 100 Nights, SJ&DK became a gateway drug that got me hooked on the rest of the Daptone Records ouevre, including but not limited to Charles Bradley, The Budos Band, Sugarman 3, and a reissue of the forgotten debut album from Buffalo's own Bob & Gene. The brand new vintage soul sounds coming out of Brooklyn embodied by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings was up to the minute yet instantly timeless, pulsatingly alive and thus profoundly invaluable.
There's also the fact that I've never been to a less than transcendent Daptone show, whether it's The Budos Band, Charles Bradley, or the Queen Bee Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, whose show at the Town Ballroom (with Charles Bradley opening) a quasi religious experience. If Charles Bradley set the room on fire with a mighty introduction to his art, Sharon Jones took us to church, shaking, twirling, and wringing every drop of soul from her performance before a rapt and transformed audience. That was a show unlike any other I'd been to, and an experience I long to have again.
That said, Give The People What The Want, like the albums that precede it and those of the great recording artists, utterly replaces what had come before to be the latest iteration of their art. Like their previous four studio albums, the meticulous curation and production of Daptone mastermind Bosco Mann (Gabriel Roth) and musicianship of the Dap-Kings works entirely in the service of Sharon's powerful and evocative vocals to such an extent that it seems offhandedly naturalistic like the best Stax and Muscle Shoals productions which are of course the standards for soul and pop music. Just another day at the office for the Daptone Records crew.
If I Learned The Hard Way was notable for a sense of hard bitten lessons learned, Give The People What They Want is all about defiance and soldiering on with your head up, and even though it was recorded before Sharon's health issues, these songs resonate triumphantly even though the songs are about dudes doing our heroine jive (as usual). But her dignity and strength never flags, and that feeling is infectious, and inspirational on a variety of levels. Songs like "People Don't Get What They Deserve," "Retreat!" and "We Get Along" are clarion calls for perseverance and grace during trying times... both in the personal and societal sense. Life isn't fair, and all we can do is "get along" and go with it the best we can, and that gritty and real sentiment is something one can appreciate within the context of the African American historical and cultural experience, and definitely draw strength from.
So while not groundbreaking or particularly forward looking, the new Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings album is still an essential and intensely valuable work that provides a snapshot of where that Brooklyn soul music outfit is at right now, and more importantly little bit of inspiration, wisdom, and hope for both listener (and artist) during these unsettled times. And maybe if we're lucky Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings will make a welcome return to Western New York. Keep your fingers crossed...
