I Learned The Hard Way
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Music (Audio CD)
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
manufacturer: DAPTONE
release date: 2010-04-06
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon
availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Music Tracks
- soul
- up in the air
Disc 1
| 1 | The Game Gets Old |
| 2 | I Learned the Hard Way |
| 3 | Better Things |
| 4 | Give It Back |
| 5 | Money |
| 6 | The Reason |
| 7 | Window Shopping |
| 8 | She Ain't a Child No More |
| 9 | I'll Still Be True |
| 10 | Without a Heart |
| 11 | If You Call |
| 12 | Mama Don't Like My Man |
Album Description
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are already well known as one of the most exciting acts in the nation for both their explosive live shows and their prolific output of gritty studio recordings. Their breakout release, 100 Days, 100 Nights, sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. This Spring the band will release I Learned the Hard Way, their fourth full-length on Brooklyn’s independent Daptone Records. The record marks a bold step forward for a band who almost single handedly stewarded today’s return of soul music to its more traditional sound.
Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, the record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style “Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its best.
Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, the record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style “Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its best.
Album Description
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are already well known as one of the most exciting acts in the nation for both their explosive live shows and their prolific output of gritty studio recordings. Their breakout release, 100 Days, 100 Nights, sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. This Spring the band will release I Learned the Hard Way, their fourth full-length on Brooklyn’s independent Daptone Records. The record marks a bold step forward for a band who almost single handedly stewarded today’s return of soul music to its more traditional sound.
Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, the record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style “Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its best.
Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, the record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style “Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its best.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
She's tough, determined, powerful, and the band backs her up to the teeth, 2010-08-16
By Frank Camm
First and foremost, classic 1960s soul, with a strong Southern accent. Second, an ensemble whose members easily play inside each others' moves--tight. Music is built up in clear layers that interact seamlessly despite the clean space. Third, Jones is tough, determined, powerful, and the band backs ... her ... up to the teeth. It is as though they came to fight and execute their moves with terrifying precision. Her toughness ultimately pumps the life and drive into this tight unit, and they drive with hard determination. Exciting, despite the dated feel--nobody sang with such hard determination back then. Stand-outs: tr 5--Money. "Money, where have you gone to?" Jones shouts it out with anger and defiance. And the band backs her up. Tough, tight, dark, menacing, determined. tr 12--Momma don't like my man. Teenage, beach-music, doowop lament with a light, clipped wonderfully innocent girl-group vibe.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
not a good recording, 2010-08-01
By trying to be helpful
There is something wrong with the recording. It was extremely apparent when the album Naturally came on immediately afterwards in my itunes. The band sounded way, way better doing these same songs live in studio on KCRW recently, so it's not the music, which is fantastic. I don't know very much about recording, but it seems like the vocals are too high and the music doesn't have that "full" sound that their other recordings do.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
music cd, 2010-07-26
By Brian Hanson
no problems with this order, came on time and worked right out of the wrapper.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
As good a soul album in 1968, 2010-07-10
By OffBeat Magazine
Previous Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings albums have gotten by on the concept--a raw soul singer backed by a band of cratediggers--and the passion and precision with which they executed it. Because they're record fans, the Dap-Kings perform an appealing slight of hand, assembling soul tunes from parts that were separated by years and miles, patching together a Stax horn line with Willie Mitchell's drums and Motown vocals on one song, then the Muscle Shoals rhythm part and a Lee Allen sax part for another. That it all comes off as organic is a tribute to their affection for their influences and their attention to detail. The albums' strength was also their weakness, though. The songs sounded like the third or fourth-best songs on albums by soul greats; you loved the voice, loved the groove, loved the vague familiarity, but you loved other songs more.
On I Learned the Hard Way, the songwriting takes a giant step forward. The songs are more melodic, which gives Jones more to work with, though by the end of "Give it Back," she channels Otis Redding in an outro that's an exercise in rhythm. On "The Game Gets Old" and throughout the album, the songs immerse you in Jones' world of love and heartbreak (with more of the latter) instead of nodding toward the ones that inspired them. The improved songwriting makes any quibbles about retroness irrelevant; I Learned the Hard Way would have been as good a soul album in 1968 and it's a good one today.--OffBeat Magazine, June 2010 issue
On I Learned the Hard Way, the songwriting takes a giant step forward. The songs are more melodic, which gives Jones more to work with, though by the end of "Give it Back," she channels Otis Redding in an outro that's an exercise in rhythm. On "The Game Gets Old" and throughout the album, the songs immerse you in Jones' world of love and heartbreak (with more of the latter) instead of nodding toward the ones that inspired them. The improved songwriting makes any quibbles about retroness irrelevant; I Learned the Hard Way would have been as good a soul album in 1968 and it's a good one today.--OffBeat Magazine, June 2010 issue
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Love the CD!, 2010-06-24
By pearls of wisdom
I read a review in the local Cape Cod paper and thought, "this is for me." I ordered it here on Amazon right away. Ironically, the group was on one of the late night shows right after I ordered the CD, so I got a live 'taste' of Sharon and her men. Excellent. My kind of singer/gal. And the review I read was right. The young ones today can only hope to have the 'soul' Sharon has! I would love to see her in person. "I got better things to do"-my Fave.
