Back catalogue: Soul

Review: Danielle Nicole shares her debut album on Forty Below: The Love You Bleed. From its earliest recording sessions, Nicole knew this one would be different; for the first time, the whole twelve-track repertoire is about falling in love, not the fallout of it. Produced by Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Eric Burdon, Robert Cray) and mixed by John Porter (B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bryan Ferry), The Love You Bleed is an album-length sentimental ballad; full of love, loss, will, determination, and every residual ingredient of love. But that's not to say the album doesn't get sour with it; while lead single 'Make Love' is about consciously pushing past pain - choosing love, family, and community in life's difficult moments - 'How Did We Get To Goodbye' hits the listener quicker with its raw and twinging lyrics, documenting a soured love that bears no hero or villain, and asking how one might reach such a place of disrepair without even knowing it.

Review: Since breaking through 11 years ago, Portland, Oregon combo The Delines have crafted an attractive trademark 'country soul' sound that combines the lilting, desert drive heartache of Americana - an effect heightened by the southern drawl of singer Amy Boone - with Stax-style hazy horns, elongated Hammond organ chords, and warming grooves. It's a sound that can be as easily applied to downtempo numbers as more upbeat ones, with the widespread use of strings and less fashionable brass and woodwind instruments (flugelhorn anyone?). The band's latest full-length excursion may well be their most hard hitting, heart breaking and poignant set yet, with a polished take on their distinctive style only emphasising the quality of their musicality and Boone's expressive lead vocals.

Review: Over the course of two fine, full-length excursions, Don Glori (real name Gordon Li) has perfected a warm, breezy and frequently life-affirming trademark sound that cannily joins the dots between jazz, samba, MPB, jazz-funk and soul. He leans into the latter elements more on summery third set Paper Can't Wrap Fire, drawing on the talents of a wealth of Melbourne music friends across nine sublime tracks. There's much to admire throughout, from the sun-soaked jazz-funk/soul fusion of 'Brown Eyes' and summery head-nodder 'Janet', to the spiritual jazz joy of 'Song For Ants', the Brazilian brilliance of 'Precious' and the oceans-deep nu-jazz shuffle of 'Saturn's Return'.