So now we know, STAY TRUE was only the tip of the iceberg as
Danny and the Champions of the World unleash another barrage of country soul
with emphasis being explicitly on the latter with a capital ‘S’. If Danny
played his first hand in 2013 with the highly acclaimed above mentioned album,
then the raise came from trumping records by Shinyribs, The Delines and Frazey Ford in
2014. However the South London fluid and extensive combo were certainly holding
an ace up their sleeve and a renewed high has been set with the new album WHAT
KIND OF LOVE. For that near optimum playing time of 41 minutes, the lavish
splashing of steel, sax and strings spins into a sensational sound destined to
get every muscle in your body at least manoeuvring a touch.
Riddled with heavy brass, riveting riffs and Danny’s
unmistakable yearning vocals, this record has stretched the recent Champs back
catalogue and put the band on a highly explicit track. Maybe the natural
audience for the record are more akin to timid shuffling rather than frenetic
dancefloor activity, but the ten tracks are right on the energetic mark to
inject life into any venue introvert. This inevitably leads onto the salivating
prospect of listening to the tracks live, obviously interspersed with the old
Champs favourites. If the claim ‘the best live band around’ is to be lived up
to then the cupboard of scintillating stage songs is stocked to the rafters.
Rather than going into great detail about each song on the
album, the advice from these quarters is to access Danny’s thoughts on each
track as posted on The Line of Best Fit site. Far from him advocating songs one
to ten as great pieces of work and must buys (most reviews will do that), the
background, inspiration and evolvement will breathe total life into the album.
You will also get the most vivid insight possible, be totally absorbed by his influences,
genuine honesty and the sheer passion evoked by an artist following their pure
instinct. On the other hand, if you just prefer a rollicking good listen to a sound
merging the fine artistic traits of soul, funk, rock and country in the guise
of pedal steel, saturating your senses with his album in its entirety is a lock
in.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Danny’s enthusiastic
commentary is the influx of collaboration on the album and this is most marked
on the backing vocals adorning a number of the tracks, as you would expect on
any golden soulful combination. Another key reason for the intrinsic allure of
this record is the carefully judged pace which explodes in the early bars of
the opening signature track ‘Clear Water’
and rarely eases until the fading, reflective tones of closer ‘Sound of the Train’ drift into a distant
ether.
While genre detection, even in its multiple formats, is not
too tricky on this album, the malleable base to the sound allows for a heady
mix to flourish. The hooks are profound and effective with a vice-like grip
ensuring every second of this outstanding collection is savoured. Danny and the
Champions of the World is a band on a mission and WHAT KIND OF LOVE is their
boldest statement yet. A brash brilliant British contemporary country, rock n’
soul record is tough to find these days, but Danny George Wilson and his band
of brothers have gone a long way to fill the void.
