Black Pumas: Black Pumas [ATO]

Why you'll love it

This ATO pressing comes with a stiff lyric and credits inner sleeve. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, and "Colors" went to No. 1 on AAA radio and picked up Record of the Year and Best American Roots Performance nominations.

This edition

• Lyric inner sleeve

About the album

Eric Burton was busking on the Santa Monica Pier and then the streets of Austin when a mutual friend put him in touch with Adrian Quesada, a Grammy-winning guitarist from Grupo Fantasma with a stack of retro funk and soul tracks and no singer. The two joined forces in 2018, worked the songs out at a weekly residency at C-Boys Heart & Soul Bar, and signed to ATO.

Quesada produced the record with vintage sounds in mind: fuzzy bass, crisp drums, warm organ and a touch of psychedelia. Burton sings over it like a man who has spent years winning over strangers on the sidewalk. "Black Moon Rising" and "Fire" were the first singles, "Colors" became the breakout after a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and "Know You Better" and "OCT 33" show off the band's moodier side.

The duo went from Austin bar residency to a Best New Artist nomination in about eighteen months. Austin's mayor even proclaimed May 7, 2020 Black Pumas Day, which is more than most of us get for turning up on time.

Also at Kops: more Black Pumas on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On ATO (cat# 0882358716), the 2019 album.