You all know the label Hidden Beach as the label that brought us Jill Scott...and after hearing Kindred The Family Soul's debut release it's quite clear that Hidden Beach has done it again and came up with another fine album. Kindred The Family Soul are marriage partners Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon and thus their music reflects some very personal views about love, being together and the joy and pain of it. Based in Philly it comes to no surprise that Surrender To Love includes some of Philly's best like Ursula Rucker, Jill Scott, Bilal or Musiq.
Thinking about husband and wife as duo recording soul music, Womack & Womack and Ashford & Simpson spring to mind and in some way these comparisons aren't so untrue since Fatin & Aja write very decent songs and have a warm, soulful and organic sound. The whole feeling of Surrender To Love is more of some vintage 70ies soul transformed into this century, not unlike to Fertile Ground for example. In fact, some songs remind me of Fertile Grounds recent album Seasons Change. Like Fertile Ground Fatin and Aja use real instruments like horns, strings, drums, guitars and Fender Rhodes to create a warm, soulful atmosphere.
It's really hard to pick a favourite song here, there's really not a bad one on this album and with 18 songs on offer there's too much to review every single track here. So I just point out a few like What Happens Now that addresses the topic of speechlessness about today's problems ("You see I tried to ignore it/ But it got to loud to turn away/ People crying out for answers/ But I found myself with saying nothing"), the funky Spread The Word, which makes clever use of War's River Niger, or the thought provoking Party's Over ("When the party's over it's over it's back to me/ When the liquor's gone and I'm sober and my high is sleep/ I think about id, myself, my life, my love, my dreams/ What I'm gonna do, how I'm gone eatI sleep and breath and bleed the life/ Of pure ghetto breed, desert eagle the malnourished rhyme spitters/ Then under the stairs people/ I'm grit covered and lethal a sick gutterly street youth"). But there's so much more good music here. Take the first single Rhythm Of Life (also featured in the uptempo King Britt version as bonus track) or the brilliant Far Away.
It's so good to hear a whole album influenced by soul music's halcyon days released via a major label. If you only buy a few soul albums every quarter make sure Surrender To Love will be one of them.