Neo-soulman
Matthew E. White first played with neo-Laurel Canyon songstress
Flo Morrissey at a
Lee Hazlewood tribute concert, where they performed "Some Velvet Morning" together. Pleased with their chemistry, they embarked on recording a collection of covers, hunkering down with
White's
Spacebomb collective to cover ten songs from the past and present.
White and
Morrissey curated a diverse selection of tunes, choosing familiar numbers from
the Velvet Underground ("Sunday Morning"),
Leonard Cohen ("Suzanne"), and
Frankie Valli ("Grease"), a deep cut from
George Harrison ("Govindam"), a number from jazzman
Roy Ayers ("Everybody Loves the Sunshine"), and compositions from European eccentrics
Nino Ferrer ("Looking for You") and
Charlotte Gainsbourg ("Heaven Can Wait"). Balancing these deep catalog tunes are selections from
White and
Morrissey's own contemporaries
Little Wings ("Look at What the Light Did Now"),
James Blake ("The Colour in Anything"), and
Frank Ocean ("Thinking Bout You"). That's a lot of ground to cover but ace producer
White ties it together with the lush, sultry evocation of '70s soul, funk, and pop that's become his stock-in-trade. It's such a groovy sound that it disguises how these songs are not so much interpreted as arranged. Part of the problem lies in the wispiness of both
White and
Morrissey. Neither vocalist is a strong presence, so their voices wind up not as the focal point on the record but as an element in the tapestry. That's enough to make
Gentlewoman, Ruby Man an alluring listen -- it offers a supple, soulful shimmer, one that's hard for anybody steeped in '70s vinyl to resist. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine