Durand Jones & The Indications: Private Space [DEAD OCEANS]

Why you'll love it

This LP comes with a download card. Private Space is the album where the Bloomington soul revivalists went smooth, trading four-track grit for glossy disco rhythms, lush strings and Aaron Frazer's feather-light falsetto.

This edition

• Download card included

About the album

Most bands that start out recording on a Tascam four-track stay loyal to the hiss. Durand Jones & The Indications began exactly that way, as a group of Indiana University music students bonding over old soul 45s, and their homemade debut slowly turned them into one of the leading lights of the soul revival.

By their third album they wanted something bigger and shinier. Private Space leans into sleek modern soul and disco, with synths, strings and keys gliding over rhythms built for a mirror ball. Jones, a Louisiana native with a classical saxophone background, and drummer Aaron Frazer share the lead vocals, Jones bringing the warmth and Frazer the sweet high notes, while guitarist Blake Rhein keeps the arrangements tight. "Love Will Work It Out" opens the record with a hug, the title track sways, and "Witchoo" and "More Than Ever" get the hips moving.

Written after time apart, it's a record about escapism and coming back together, and it sounds like a warm summer night with the windows down. Southern California's lowrider crowd adopted this band early, and frankly they have excellent taste in cars and in music.

Also at Kops: more Durand Jones & The Indications on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On Dead Oceans (cat# DOC227LP), the 2021 album.