{"id":3523,"date":"2014-04-24T07:39:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T06:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesenseofdoubt.com\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2016-12-10T21:53:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T21:53:06","slug":"joe-taylor-the-soul-between-love-and-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/box2305.temp.domains\/~thesent5\/joe-taylor-the-soul-between-love-and-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Taylor: the soul between love and loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Taylor: the soul between love and loss<\/span><\/h2>\n
Alejandro De Luna<\/span><\/h5>\n

Isn\u00b4t love and the loss of it what motivate (or discourage) human beings? Isn\u00b4t this the reason why blues, R&B or soul started as a form of expression?<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my earliest memories were of me and mum dancing around the living room to The Temptations, Bob Marley, David Ruffin <\/strong>and Marvin Gaye<\/strong>\u201d, says Joe Taylor,<\/strong> a 24-year old artist\u00a0whose debut EP, Blossom Avenue<\/em>,\u00a0provides a fresh recap through the African-American music legacy.\u00a0Three tracks \u2013 all different from\u00a0each other \u2013 influenced by the sounds of early\u00a0R&B and soul, and “lyrically written as a concept that covers loss, the hard road after and the place you arrive when you\u2019re back on track.”<\/p>\n

Coming from the northlands of Yorkshire, his path\u00a0through\u00a0music\u00a0was \u201cfunnily inspired\u201d by a rock tape compilation given by a friend of his mother at the age of 9. He\u00a0grew up mesmerized by timeless tunes from Motown Records and\u00a0listening to other\u00a0R&B\/soul greats. From Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, The Four Tops <\/strong>to Curtis Mayfield <\/strong>and Ray Charles. <\/strong>Later on, this man who despises more than anything soggy broken biscuits in his tea, found spiritual inspiration on\u00a0Bob\u00a0Marley\u00b4s<\/strong> \u201cethics on life and the way he cared for, and united people.”<\/p>\n

Before relocating to London and releasing his debut, Joe<\/strong>\u00a0Taylor<\/strong>\u00a0spent his last few years in north west Yorkshire experimenting with another of his musical passions: EDM and house music, but without leaving being the hard but intimate road of the soul while working as a\u00a0session musician, playing live and\u00a0studying at the Leeds College of music.<\/p>\n

\"1972327_496458717127023_652024344_n\"<\/a>It\u00b4s the loss of love what crafted\u00a0Joe Taylor\u00b4s <\/strong>Blossom Avenue,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>probably an approach influenced by some of the greatest\u00a0songs ever written and performed like in The Temptations\u00b4<\/strong> ‘Ain\u00b4t Too Proud To Beg’ \u2013 his\u00a0favorite\u00a0recorded vocal of all time.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve really tried to capture that American 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s sound with the brass, strings, bluesy guitar”, recalls Joe Taylor <\/strong>in a debut \u2013 written and composed in its entirety by the man himself \u2013 enriched with\u00a0brass arrangements.<\/p>\n

Blossom Avenue\u00a0<\/em>feels like a short story of love and loss transiting in different moods \u2013\u00a0each one of the tracks has a different feeling.\u00a0The opening track, ‘Losing You Was Everything’ bring us back to Curtis\u00a0Mayfield\u00b4s<\/strong> funky vibes and brass arrangements while lyrically, it starts to assimilate the loss;\u00a0but where Blossom Avenue<\/em> gets darker and brings the true statement of the EP a step forward is with ‘Long Hard Road’ \u2013 the most introspective track \u2013 full of melancholic arrangements (Taylor<\/strong> was also heavily involved in the production) and lacerating lyrics. Finally, it is in the closing homonymous song\u00a0where this fan of the Blues Kitchen in Camden, leaves the dark corridors from the previous track to bring a little bit of hope overlapped in a classic R&B sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always just been about the music for me. I’m always going to be unique in myself; I’m always going to carry on the legacy of soul music\u201d, finishes confident that soul and R&B music will make a massive comeback this year. As a reference he takes\u00a0Pharrell Williams\u00b4<\/strong>\u00a0“serious Ray Charles<\/strong>-like vibes” in ‘Happy’ or the likes of\u00a0Sam Smith <\/strong>and Gregory Porter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isn\u00b4t love and the loss of it what motivate (or discourage) human beings? Isn\u00b4t this the reason why blues, R&B or soul started as a form of expression?<\/p>\n