Focus
There is something going on with Joe Lington‘s Focus that, while being the stuff of the modern age, builds a bridge with past, conscious soul and funk artists. A bridge built on the solid ground of the musical style and reputation of the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Sly and the Family Stone, and Marvin Gaye. He has the same progressive attitude towards mixing, matching, and melding music, deftly stepping from one genre to another, soul to rock, pop to dance to funk, and more modern urban and clubland vibes. It’s all in there. Add to that his ability to sing songs in three languages and his desire to talk about pressing issues (sadly the same ones that those earlier pioneers were warning us of in their day), and you have a genuinely cross-cultural, genre-hopping, geographically fluid, socially conscious album.
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