Rag'N'Bone Man: Human (Sony Music)
With a voice as big as he is large and a reputation also fast growing in size – he won the prestigious Brits Critics' Choice award and came second in the BBC Music Sound Of 2017 list – blues and soul singer Rory Graham is set for a busy year. It's like watching the rise of Adele all over again, only with a little more edge to the back story (the 32-year-old cut his teeth on the Brighton hip-hop and drum and bass scenes) and a stronger flavour of that same wise-beyond-her-years stuff that made Amy Winehouse such a captivating performer and songwriter.
From opener Human, already a number one hit in several countries, to closing track Die Easy, a mournful a capella blues holler, this is a debut album stocked with stories of innocence and experience, as timeless in their way as any soul or R&B song from the last 50 years. At the album's mid-point, and forming an anchor of sorts, is the moving Odetta, a hymn (presumably) to African-American folk and blues great Odetta Holmes. It starts with a low growl then soars to become something akin to a spiritual. Meanwhile brass stabs and drum loops give tracks like Ego, Be The Man and As You Are a smoother, more uptempo soul-pop feel – imagine Luther Vandross as you always wanted him to sound. Album of the year (so far).
BARRY DIDCOCK
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here