Latest CD releases reviewed

ANN SEXTON
Anthology Soul Brother
****

Those who have acquired a taste for southern soul thanks to the youthful vigour of Joss Stone will do a double-take when they hear Ann Sexton working her way through such black-hearted soul as I Had a Fight With Love and the funkadelic You've Been Gone Too Long. This is the real thing, the South Carolina church-reared soul sister pouring her heart into songs about good love, bad love and really, really, really awful love. Sexton's career was slight, producing two albums (both Loving You Loving Me and In the Beginning are contained on this anthology), acclaim amongst the northern soul faithful and little else before she disappeared from sight in the late 1970s. What she left behind, though, are songs that still pack an emotional wallop and deserve to be heard again. www.soulbrother.co.uk - Jim Carroll