The UK SOUL MESSENGERS are either an offshoot of or the precursor to the wonderful SouLutions… not sure which, but they’re the creation of Steve Lee -one half of the Geordie band. Steve alongside John Anderson, Anthony Keenan and John Walker make up the Soul Messengers and we’re told that the quartet has worked with each other off and one for something like 25 years. Between them they’ve been in North East bands like the Distant Voices, Mix, Insight, La Liberte and the Skiptracers and now the Soul Messengers.
It was just twelve months ago that we enjoyed their ‘Be Right Here’ single –a sort of “psychedelic” soul Temptations sound. Since then nothing – I’m guessing that Steve has been busy with SouLutions. But now the Soul Messengers are releasing a whole album… this very week in fact!
The ten tracker is called ‘Dark Soul’ and from the little we’ve heard it’s shaping up to be a classic Brit, modern soul set with the overall sonic template not a million miles away from the well-loved SouLutions sound. Tunes like ‘Don’t Tear Your Heart Out’ and ‘This Is For Real’ are sweet and smooth and stuffed with catchy hooks and gentle harmonies. There’s also a version of William DeVaughn’s classic ‘Be Thankful’.
THE SOUL MESSENGERS: ‘Dark Soul’ album is on Festival Park Records and available only via the Messengers own web site.
