(Retro-Soul, Male Vocal) [WEB] St. Paul & The Broken Bones - Young Sick Camellia - 2018, FLAC (tracks), lossless

After debuting in 2014 with the fiery retro-soul of Half the City, St. Paul & the Broken Bones followed up two years later with the more thoughtful Sea of Noise. Taking on sociopolitical concerns, it still channeled the '60s and '70 of Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and Motown, but with a more refined sonic approach. The eight-piece tweak their panoramic soul again on their third full-length, Young Sick Camellia. (The camellia is the official flower of their home state of Alabama.) A more personal work that includes periodic spoken-word clips of singer and main songwriter Paul Janeway's grandfather, its tone is even more reflective than Sea of Noise. At least as noteworthy, the 2018 release was produced and arranged by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Mayer Hawthorne), and while it's still indebted to the soul of a half-century or so prior, it's their most contemporary-sounding album to date. Dramatic orchestral arrangements that employ strings -- or, in the case of first song "Convex," brass and woodwinds in the role of sweeping strings -- appear as regularly throughout the album as the conversation segments. Funky and relatively uptempo, "Convex" still has a cautionary tone and incorporates psychedelic elements like warped pitches, samples, and strings that are used for sound effects rather than chord voicing. Likewise, even some of the album's more danceable tracks carry the weight of broader productions and deeper thoughts. That includes the trippy "Mr. Invisible," which manages to keep its soulful center alongside hip-hop beats and off-kilter percussion and electronics, thanks in large part to Janeway's vocals. The Bones do let loose on songs like the disco jam "Got It Bad" and "LivWithOutU," a grooving, straightforward love song. Taken as a whole, though, Young Sick Camellia feels almost like a concept album, one framed by and rooted in a confrontational contemporary reality. (Marcy Donelson, allmusic.com)