To beat the January Blues, BBC 6 Music made their annual ‘Escape back to the…’ feature where one day a week was dedicated to 80s, 90s, 00s and the 10s. As part of the 10s playlist, Craig Charles played ‘Need Your Love’ by Curtis Harding from the album ‘Face Your Fear’. I thought I had the album in my collection, I was mistaken.
A quick check online and I managed to find it for less than £20 on the WHSmith website of all places. A couple of days later it was here and is now being spun and thoroughly enjoyed.
For those unfamiliar with Harding he is a modern soul singer who does a decent line in R&B too. I was lucky enough to catch him live at Gorilla in Manchester last year and can confirm he puts on quite a show.
This album is only a few years old yet sounds so retro, that isn’t a criticism, Harding’s writing and singing style make the record sound like a vintage soul LP which is a good thing in my opinion.
Listen and you will hear the influence of greats like Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, and Smokey Robinson, as well as modern contemporaries like Cee Lo Green which is not really a surprise as Harding toured and co-wrote with him in the 00s before going solo in 2014.
If you fancy getting some good, old-fashioned, (almost) brand-new soul in your life then you could do worse than give this album a go. It is available everywhere for about £20.
Tracks To Try: ‘Face Your Fear’, ‘On And On’, ‘Go As You Are’, ‘Till The End’, ‘I Need Your Love’.