Menahan Street Band: The Crossing [DAPTONE]

Why you'll love it

This Dunham and Daptone LP comes in a heavy board gatefold with a download code. The Crossing scored 79 on Metacritic, and AllMusic and The Irish Times each gave it four stars out of five.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included

About the album

Menahan Street Band is what happens when some of Brooklyn's finest soul session players get together with no singer to accompany. Guitarist and producer Thomas Brenneck leads, with Homer Steinweiss and Nick Movshon on drums and bass, Leon Michels on organ and tenor sax, Dave Guy on trumpet and Mike Deller on piano, plus Victor Axelrod on organ and a small string section, players whose credits run right through the Daptone family and Charles Bradley's records.

Brenneck handles just about everything with strings, from guitar and bass to ukulele and autoharp. The Bushwick Philharmonic swells up on "Lights Out," Cochemea Gastelum adds flute to "Sleight Of Hand," Bobby Chupete plays congas on "Ivory And Blue," and the title track and "Seven Is The Wind" stretch out past five minutes apiece, slow-burning and moody.

PopMatters praised its firm backbeats and tightly synchronized horn section, AllMusic heard a deep study of soul's less-celebrated geniuses, and Consequence of Sound picked up a slightly haunting, lower-timbre mood running through it. It's the ideal record for anyone who has ever wished their commute came with opening credits.

Also at Kops: more Menahan Street Band on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Dunham / Daptone (cat# DUN-1003), the 2012 album.