Alone Again, Naturally

The second of six long players Phillips would record for Kudu between ’72 and ’75 is another highly accomplished soul collection.  The label was sometimes criticised for  the orchestration they added to many of their soul and jazz albums, but the gently shimmering pastel-pink strings here are a perfect uptown accompaniment to the expert electric piano, horns and R’n’B grooves provided by the crack team of Kudu players. Phillips had one of the most distinctive voices in soul music, astringent, tart, stretched, and most at home on deep, intimate, close-up ballads, singing tales of lost love and finding beauty in that sadness, of which there are plenty on here. She delivers a gorgeous stripped-down keys and horns version of Bill Withers’ "Use Me," and a deeply affecting, funereal-paced "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," while also turning in a surprisingly successful proto-disco cover of soul standard, "I’ve Never Found a Man" too. A smouldering, high intensity, deep soul burner of an album.