Cover to "I Learned the Hard Way" (Daptone, 2010); image courtesy of pastemagazine.com
So, this outfit’s fourth album has been out for a little over a month. Better to get to it now than never, especially since I’ve been playing it constantly since I bought it on Record Store Day.
In many ways, what’s kept me from writing about I Learned the Hard Way is the question, “what is there to say?” Sure, some folks may criticize how many “done me wrong” odes there are in the band’s catalog. They as also bristle at the inclusion of problematic songs like “She Ain’t a Child No More,” which details alcoholism, parental negligence, and mother-daughter child abuse.
But my endorsement of the album may be informed by being a white girl who feels tough blasting these songs in her car, belting the title track, “The Game Gets Old,” “Better Things,” “Money,” and “Mama Don’t Like My Man” as I cruise the Hancock Center parking lot on trips to H.E.B.
But I’ve always appreciated the resilience and resistance evident in the majority of the group’s catalog. I Learned the Hard Way simply proves the rule once again.
Furthermore, while some may still not be in the know, folks may deride the Dap-Kings for being one of the most consistent recording acts going right now, as this album proves once again. They’re also super-accessible. I’ve been listening to this band since around 2004. In that time, I’ve recommended them to just about everyone, including many parents. And what’s there for them not to love? Tight arrangements and warm analog production from a group who plays their late 60s retro soul influences so close to the vest there’s no room for kitsch.
Oh, and let’s not forget the woman standing front and center — a pint-size, middle-aged former prison guard named Sharon Jones who channels the voice and moves of James Brown. It’s also to their credit that they’re a phenomenal live act. I’ve seen them twice, each time with my partners’ parents, whose mother can do the mashed potato and the funky four corners right along with Jones. Both times they proved funkier and more energetic than 99% of any act I’ve seen cross a stage. If you haven’t seen them before, as Terry Gross hadn’t when she interviewed Jones and founder Gabe “Bosco Mann” Roth in 2007, get to work on it.
I will point out that I like Jones’s placement on the cover, which was photographed by Jacob Blickenstaff. In the previous three covers, she was posed alone. While Naturally is my favorite of these, as I like the singer’s casual pose and the cover’s aesthetic, I read 100 Days, 100 Nights, perhaps in relation to its release, as a singular act of defiance. The album came out amidst backing band the Dap Kings’ playing with Amy Winehouse. While I don’t want to decry Winehouse, I was concerned that Jones’ backing band would be associated with a rail-thin, troubled British singer and their work with an empowered black woman would be overshadowed by short-sighted, tone-deaf tabloid fodder.
Amy Winehouse; image courtesy of boston.com
Thus, I really like how Jones represents herself in the current album cover: strong, focused, dead center, and flanked by her band. They look just as I’ve seen them in concert: sharply dressed, sharper minded, and ready to raise up from society’s rubble and asphalt into pop’s lexicon.
