User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
- Record Label: Daptone
- Release Date: Apr 6, 2010
- Summary: The fourth album for the funk/soul group from New York was produced by Bosco Mann.
- Record Label: Daptone
- Genre(s): R&B, Soul
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 25 out of 30
-
Mixed: 5 out of 30
-
Negative: 0 out of 30
-
Their fourth album isn’t substantially different from their first three: Jones’s delivery, alternately muscular and tender, and the band’s total empathy with the genre’s rules elevate each tune to lost-classic status.
-
It suits them well that as musicians that have worked their entire career just to get noticed; for their newest album, I Learned the Hard Way, to be a beautiful representation of what real, honest and true soul music really is.
-
I Learned the Hard Way (Daptone) is a master class in soul singing, songwriting and arranging.
-
I Learned the Hard Way is the sound of a revival band revived, stepping out of the shadows of its idols while remaining true to the essence of its form.
-
All this would be surface charm if the group didn’t deliver songs, and they do--songs that swagger and stir the soul, fitting within tradition without being beholden to it, songs that prove that Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings are the real deal.
-
The Dap-Kings' most complete album closes with the stripped-down gospel thump of "Mama Don't Like My Man," a far cry from the rough funk of 2002 debut Dap Dippin' and a move that proves Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings have learned a thing or two since then. The hard way, naturally.
-
Q MagazineIt's good, but then again no better than a genuine, crackly, long-forgotten B-side or buried album track that a specialist reissue label might have unearthed. And there, ultimately is the rub. [Jun 2010, p.127]
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 4 out of 4
-
Mixed: 0 out of 4
-
Negative: 0 out of 4
-
LincolnApr 6, 2010
-
-
uptonk.Apr 12, 2010Perfect. Seasoned and knowing. Just an incredible disc from beginning to end. Sharon is simply the best.
-
-
Nov 22, 2011
-
-
VincentD.Apr 7, 2010Soulful, beautiful, even breathtaking - this album delivers on all fronts. A triumph in what it achieves in the genre.
-