When ex-Beat and Fine Young Cannibals member David Steele says he spent several years looking for the most extraordinary voice in existence for his new project, Fried, you suspect there’s a certain amount of press-release license involved. Doubtless at some point between the mid-Nineties and now, he had days off for laundry, Sunday papers and idly wondering where Roland Gift’s gotten to. That said, Jonte Short – the young New Orleans-born vocalist who is Steele’s partner in this impressive new endeavour – has a splendid, smouldering, slow-burn voice that doesn’t grow on trees, so you’ll spare our Dave the exaggeration.
And if Steele is clearly in awe of Short’s church-raised, gospel-trained, downright delicious soul voice, his I-am-not-worthy genuflections never smother her magnificence (though it’s hard not to imagine him wriggling with soul-boy-heaven glee during the recording process). "Fried" is a repeat-play-worthy affair from start to finish: a wholly satisfying fusion of Steele’s grasp of vintage Motown, soul, funk and gospel, Short’s effortlessly intuitive, Aretha Franklin-meets-Fontella Bass delivery of lead and backing vocals alike, and some cracking songwriting from the both of them. You don’t have to be a vintage R&B boffin to appreciate the love and skill with which the whole is constructed, or deft modern touches like a well-placed rap from the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA on percolating, bass-driven “When You Get Out Of Jail”.
Throughout, there are plenty of lip-smacking aural flourishes. A crackly, old-vinyl patina leads a slouchy set of flute-dotted rhythms; the slide guitars and acoustic piano of yearning lament “Whatever I Choose I Lose” and scratchy, side-winding “Friends In Lo Places” suggest Morcheeba at their most scuffed and down-home; the blood-warm beats, sitars and strings of “Things Change” beguile, and Beth Gibbons’s songwriting contribution and backing vocals grace a ghostly and regret-filled “Love Is A Stranger”.
Ultimately, it’s almost impossible to pinpoint whether it’s the quality of the songs, the fluid and instinctive musical arrangements or the wise, wounded and inspirational grasp of nuance in Jonte Short’s voice that makes this musical chemistry experiment such a winner. The only certainty is that "Fried" delivers a pack-full of first-class songs (particularly “Back From The War” and a weary, home-truth-telling “It’s Too Late”) that wouldn’t be out of place in the hallowed Motor City-via-Memphis musical canon that David Steele has – to his clear delight – Forrest Gumped himself into.
He ain’t the first pale English white boy to dream of finding himself in the middle of a genuine soul classic, but – thanks to Jonte and his own considerable skills – he’s come (near as dammit) to achieving it.
