{"id":6709,"date":"2013-04-16T15:33:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T15:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=6709"},"modified":"2013-04-16T15:33:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T15:33:04","slug":"charles-bradley-victim-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/04\/16\/charles-bradley-victim-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"CHARLES BRADLEY &#8211; Victim of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/2013\/04\/16\/charles-bradley-victim-of-love\/homepage_large-0e5c84a1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6765\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6765\" alt=\"homepage_large.0e5c84a1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/homepage_large.0e5c84a1-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It takes less than ten seconds.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Seriously, at the eight-second mark I\u2019m all in on Charles Bradley\u2019s sophomore album.<!--more--> A ringing guitar chord jumps off a drum kick cliff and the fat-bottomed bass bounces the song back into the sky where the herald horns announce their presence before a vibraslap (!) punctuates the opening. All this before Bradley\u2019s baritone \u201cooh\u201d and the backing vocals come in.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bradley may have taken his early inspiration for performance and vocal mannerisms from seeing James Brown at the Apollo in 1962 (and earned a living impersonating him under the name \u201cBlack Velvet\u201d), but sonically on <em>Victim of Love<\/em> \u2013 as on his debut record <em>No Time For Dreaming<\/em> \u2013 his closest sonic forebears are the likes of Jimmy Norman\u2019s growl, Al Green\u2019s impassioned wail and Brenton Wood\u2019s melodicism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earmilk.com\/2013\/04\/01\/charles-bradley-strictly-reserved-for-you-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cStrictly Reserved For You\u201d<\/a> is a spectacular opener featuring the Menahan Street Band at their subtlest \u2013 providing support for Bradley\u2019s vocals that dances around without distracting. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MIe_Kd8bTew\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cYou Put The Flame On It\u201d<\/a> gives the Menahan horns a bit more of a workout and a chance to shine before stepping aside on the title track where it feels like a solitary spotlight is shining on Bradley at the center of the stage \u2013 the acoustic guitar, vibraphone and backing vocals are all pushed to the corners of the mix. It may have taken him six decades to find that spotlight but as Bradley demonstrates on this song (and on the album as a whole), he has no plans to relinquish it now. (Daptone Records \/ Dunham, <a href=\"http:\/\/daptonerecords.com\" target=\"_blank\">daptonerecords.com<\/a>)<b id=\"internal-source-marker_0.930885921465233\"> Michael Elves<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It takes less than ten seconds. Seriously, at the eight-second mark I\u2019m all in on Charles Bradley\u2019s sophomore album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[181,771,896],"class_list":["post-6709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-charles-bradley","tag-rb","tag-soul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}