Album: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings I Learned The Hard Way (Daptone)

Their follow-up to the splendid 100 Days, 100 Nights finds Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings deftly employing the Sixties soul grammar which made them such a key element of Amy Winehouse's Back To Black.

Sharon Jones has a genuine soul voice, with distinct touches of pleaders like Irma Thomas and Mavis Staples, while in bassist Bosco Mann, The Dap-Kings have a producer with a keen ear for how the various subsidiary elements –- details like the glockenspiel on "The Game Gets Old" and the vibes motif of "The Reason" – all lock together to best serve the groove. There are plenty of standouts, not least "Better Things", with a piano hook that acts like a semi-colon on the riff, and "Money", which applies the dynamic of Edwin Starr's "War" to financial battles.

Download this: The Game Gets Old; Better Things; Money