Lee Fields: Sentimental Fool (indie exclusive, orange vinyl) [DAPTONE RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This indie exclusive comes on orange vinyl in a mono mix, cut to eight-track tape at Daptone West. It's classic soul with nothing faked: Bosco Mann produced, and Fields sings like every song is his last chance.

This edition

• Indie exclusive
• Orange vinyl
• Mono mix
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Lee Fields cut his first single in 1969, spent the disco years selling real estate in Newark, and came back in the 1990s to work the Southern soul circuit. He's been on and off Gabriel Roth's labels since the Desco days, when a young Sharon Jones sang backup for him, so his first full-length for Daptone feels less like a new deal than a homecoming.

Roth, as Bosco Mann, produced it at Penrose Recorders in Riverside, California, and wrote the liner notes. The title track is pure slow-burn longing, "Forever" wears its heart on its sleeve, and "Two Jobs," "The Door" and "Extraordinary Man" show off a voice that sounds more lived-in every year. Over the decades he's sung with everyone from O. V. Wright to Kool and the Gang, and all of it is in there. The band plays it warm and tight, the Daptone way.

Fields has been nicknamed "Little JB" since his teens, which is a lot to live up to, and he's been doing it for over half a century. We'd call him an overnight success, but that would be a slight exaggeration.

Also at Kops: more Lee Fields on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On Daptone Records (cat# DAP-075), the 2022 album.