Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats: self-titled [STAX]

Why you'll love it

This Stax LP comes with a printed band-photo inlay and a download card. The album turned "S.O.B." into a runaway hit and launched the Denver band on the label that once housed Otis Redding.

This edition

• Download card included
• Printed band photo inlay

About the album

Nathaniel Rateliff had spent more than a decade in Denver making quiet, sombre folk records when he decided to try something with a bit more swing. The Los Angeles Times described this as the album he made as a last-ditch effort before throwing in the towel. It went viral instead, and plan B became the plan.

He wrote every song, and longtime friend Joseph Pope III (bass), Mark Shusterman (keys) and Patrick Meese (drums), plus guitar and a full horn section, play them like a sweaty Saturday night. The late Richard Swift produced, keeping it warm and live in the room, and Wesley Watkins and Andy Wild's horns give it a proper old-school punch. "I Need Never Get Old" opens with a strut, "Howling at Nothing" is a slow, soulful heartbreaker, "Look It Here" and "Shake" bounce, and "S.O.B." is the stomp-and-clap singalong that broke them wide open.

Rateliff found his love of soul in the record collection his father left behind, so this album is, in a way, a family heirloom put to good use. The rest of us just have to make do with buying our own copy.

Also at Kops: more Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Stax (cat# STX-37215-02), the 2015 album.