Eli "Paperboy" Reed - Roll With You (2008)

Unlike the artists off Daptone Records, Eli "Paperboy" Reed sings straight up 60's, pre-funk soul. The backing band is solid - I love the horn section - but its the vocals that make it worth your time. He has a nice gritty voice - emotive and passionate enough to recall heyday STAX or Atlantic Records. It's clear he's done his homework. The music successfully captures that authentic/retro sound and the songs are consistently good to great. The lyrics keep it simple, focused on love, relationships, boasts, and dances. "Stake Your Claim" kicks off the album with plenty of Solomon Burke-like attitude and well-timed horn bursts. "I'm Gonna Getcha" reminds me a bit of Joe Tex's preacher style rap. On "(Doin' The) Boom Boom" he let's out his best Wilson Pickett scream. If you dig the retro soul sound, you have to check out this album.

Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built (2007)

It's a good documentary on the founder of Atlantic Records, one of the greatest independent music labels ever and one that released a lot music I love. There's plenty of clips of concert footage featuring such luminaries as Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Led Zepplin... However, 60 years is a lot to cover and most topics just get a passing mention. Jazz is almost completely ignored. It's too brief and too much of a celebration to provide much insight not already provided in books like Sweet Soul Music or the autobiography of Jerry Wexler, but without his own autobiography it's one of the only places to meet such an amazing figure. How many people legitimately can say the decided between becoming their country's ambassador to US or opening a independent record label?

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (2008)

If you need something to get the heads a noddin' and the toes a tappin' Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse can usually deliver. The key word in that sentence: usually. Gnarls Barkley swaggered into the mix dressed in Star Wars attire two years ago with the addictive, widely appreciated hit "Crazy" (See The Raconteurs, The Flaming Lips, Of Montreal, Nelly Furtado live covers), but up-tempo, dance inducing soul-hop seems to be the exception not the rule. The Odd Couple offers a number of easy to swallow party/lounge/groove tracks, altogether upbeat and catchy; however, some of the mixes are entirely uninteresting—albeit creatively produced. I found it far too easy to skip through nearly half of this album, while settling on the songs that either snagged me with an ass-shaking dance beat, throwback Cee-Lo soul tribute, or a Danger Mouse unique production hook. With most of the songs staying around the three minute mark, the album could have benefited from extending the bankable tracks and removing the doldrums altogether. Ultimately, there are 8 keepers on The Odd Couple, while the 5 others remain subject to interpretation.

Dance to "Run" & “Going On,” groove to “Charity Case,” and lounge to “Who's Gonna Save My Soul”

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad (2008)

Rock On is a fun and quick read about the descent of the once-great Atlantic Records from an insider perspective. This book isn't going to make you feel sorry for the major labels; more likely it'll make you wonder how they lasted so long. Kennedy presents himself as an out-of-touch, over-paid, marketing employee, simultaneously representing and feeling alienated from the bulk of the management. While his humorous and embarrassing antidotes from the world of calculated and commercial pop music are entertaining, they made me want to read a book by someone with more experience and insight. It's a shame Ahmet Ertegun never wrote his autobiography.