Gabriels - Love And Hate In A Different Time
- NICK DUTFIELD
- Nov 26, 2020
- 2 min read
During his Winner Years, Lance Armstrong got so bumptious that there was at least one press conference where a journalist confronted him with the possibility that he (Armstrong) didn’t have a monopoly on cancer. This didn’t go down very well. Remember this was during the Winner Years, and in the US he was above criticism. Once the doubts finally broke through, he was downgraded and pot shots started flying in from all over. With any luck, Trump will end up copying this trajectory. Homeless by Christmas is the preposterously optimistic end of my Nostradamus-lite prediction spectrum.
Meanwhile, upstairs in my head, this week’s imaginary press conference has been with Pharrell
Williams, where I am heroically standing up to tell him that he doesn’t have a monopoly on
happiness. Not that I have even a slither of beef with Williams. His stuff with Snoop is dear to my heart, Beautiful ran 2002 for me and Drop It Like Its Hot will forever hog the top spot in the How To Drop It podium. The problem is that when it comes to Northern Soul pastiches that promote stomping, hand-clapping positivity, Happy casts a long shadow, or more appropriately a long beam of glaring, penetrating, gloom-busting light. So, for the duration of this chat about Love And Hate In A Different Time, I’m just going to pretend that Happy doesn’t exist.
Love And Hate In A Different Time is pure joy, that was my first reaction. I’m backed up by Piccadilly Records who describe it as “comforting joy” (one eye on the Christmas Playlist there maybe). It´s got a Northern Soul vibe, complete with handclaps and a stomping beat, but also a lightness and between the vocals we get a solo of grin-inducing 21st century squelching beauty. Back to the vocals, the singer from Gabriels is Jacob Lusk and he does a great trick of mixing soaring soulfulness with a edge of downbeat, living room intimacy. Lyrically, timeless emotions are picked up, accentuating the physical relief of dance and the strengths derived community. It all adds up to a massive burst of unalloyed joy. Not cheerfulness, not upbeatness, not glass-half-fullness, just joy. And look, a whole paragraph with no H-Bombs.
THIS WEEK
Gabriels – Love And Hate In A Different Time
14,727 views since 6th October Weekly Average Views – 2,021
LAST WEEK
Ladilla Rusa – A Un Y Medio De Ti
Weekly Average Views – 303,979 Blog Week Views – 99,219
EXTRAS – soul bits & handclaps – cheerful or not
Gabriels – Love And Hate In A Different Time (Short Film)
The Roots & Cody Chesnutt – The Seed
Smog – Cold Blooded Old Times
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