Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed & the True Loves

Roll With You (Q Division)

Lord, that Eli Reed can sing. A youth spent in Mississippi turned this Massachusetts crooner into a soul machine, and with the True Loves, Reed snaps 1960s with sophomore LP Roll With You. It’s derivative, but when blazing horns introduce slap-yo-face opener “Stake Your Claim,” the Watusi’s all the rage. Reed brings it down with Otis shout-outs “It’s Easier” and the title track, exploding with closer and live highlight “(Doin’ the) Boom Boom.” Something’s missing, though. He’s forcing it, all those James Brown screams and Wilson Pickett hollers. He’s begging to get his live show on disc. It has nothing to do with authenticity. It’s that Roll With You is so damn chivalrous, so polite. There’s no grit, no sweat, no sex. And you better believe that when Pickett sang, “I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour; that’s when my love begins to shine,” he wasn’t talking about the moonlight. (3:15pm, WaMu stage.)

**.5

This article appears in September 26 • 2008.

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