2023-07-15 18:15:13
Gabriels, in Los Angeles, on May 31, 2023. From left: Ryan Hope, Jacob Lusk and Ari Balouzian. RENEE PARKHURST
Grace manifested on June 4 around 4 p.m., on the third day of the 2023 edition of the We Love Green festival. A scattered audience braves the blazing sun in front of the large stage set up in the Bois de Vincennes. When appears for its second concert in France an American-British trio with the name of angel, Gabriels. In front of a microphone with a golden head, the singer imposes in his ample monarch coat, patchwork of pink, mauve and blue with black facings. Open, by almost 30°C, on a tuxedo and its bow tie.
At his side, his accomplices, a keyboard player who launches samples and a violinist in recital attire. Three choristers in evening dress, including opera gloves – between the Gilda by Rita Hayworth and the Supremes by Diana Ross – wave fans. The bass player and drummer more reasonably opted for the t-shirt. As if coming from the sky, the soft and elastic voice of Jacob Lusk rises to Offering and is already attracting the first lost sheep.
This diamond would magnetize a cappella. But it is placed on a music which remains one of the most effective calls that popular music has invented. The airy groove and quivering strings evoke memories of Motown and the sophisticated productions of “Philly Sound”, the soul of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), or that of Detroit (Michigan). Festival-goers converge to the sound of Love and Hate in a Different Timeas irresistible as a Temptations hit.
Since its release in June 2021 in a five-track praised by Elton John, this single has made its way and put Gabriels on the agenda of major festivals like Glastonbury, in England, or Coachella, in California. It will however have been necessary to wait two years for the release of the first long format, Angels & Queens. According to an unobvious logic, since among the thirteen songs, seven had already been delivered in another mini-album and under the same title in September 2022. No matter, we have one of the most beautiful and addictive records of 2023.
“Church Boy”
If the soul tropism, from the 1960s to the British group Soul II Soul (from which Gabriels takes up the Back To Life of 1989), is marked, Angels & Queens cannot be reduced to an exercise in backward-looking style. Between doo-wop choirs and those string pizzicati dear to James Brown, we also hear the funk of New Orleans (Angels & Queens), a jazz nocturne in the spirit of Nat King Cole (Professional), a languorous Luther Vandross ballad (We Will Remember), an explosive mix of disco and gospel (Glory) ou du R’n’B modern (Mama). By associating hip-hop producer Sounwave, celebrated for his work with Kendrick Lamar, the production skilfully avoids the “neo” trap.
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