Several cuts - dance party numbers "Can You Do This" and "Chasing," the hat-on-heart ballad "Red Velvet Seat," and the exultant, Elton John-referencing "The Man," boosted by a gospel choir - are spiffier spins on Aloe's earlier soul stylings. Aloe co-produced all but three of the songs, with veteran DJ Khalil involved with all but two of them. ![]() ![]() It remains as easy on the ears as a worn pair of slippers on the feet. That goes more for the material and productions than for Aloe's everyman voice, still redolent of a young and optimistic Bill Withers with an old soul. Compared to Good Things, it sounds like its making was much more considered and laborious. Just as Hawthorne's major-label debut presented his throwback sound with sanded surfaces, this set does have some contemporary sheen. Thankfully, Lift Your Spirit doesn't attempt to capitalize on the success of the Avicii collaboration, unless the zero-percent EDM version of "Wake Me Up," placed third on the U.S. ![]() Between the song's unlikely rise and an Interscope contract, Aloe co-wrote and fronted Avicii's peculiar folk-EDM hybrid "Wake Me Up," an even bigger hit. ![]() Like fellow retro-minded rapper-turned-singer Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc moved from the revered independent Stones Throw to a major label, but he did so after one of his singles - 2010's "I Need a Dollar" - went Top Ten in ten territories. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
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