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Feb 8, 2019Staples sounds more energized and in control here than on the 2008 set.
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Feb 7, 2019The songs vary in songwriting quality but you can’t argue with the performances. Everything she puts on the album is elevated.
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Feb 6, 2019It remains an electric, inspired show thanks to an exceedingly talented band led by guitarist Rick Holmstrom, and of course Staples’ larger than life voice, vitality and sheer personality. Pushing 80, she seems unstoppable.
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MojoFeb 6, 2019A set weighted towards her 2007-to-present day material, mainly modern freedom songs performed with energy and joy. At 79, Mavis's vocal retains its gutsy passion and vitality. [Mar 2019, p.95]
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Feb 6, 2019Live in London doesn't offer especially new insight into an artist who has made clear statements. It does, however, show that as she approaches 80, Mavis Staples has an outlook and a vitality that should be influential on today's culture, whether in smart uses of tradition or new creative ventures.
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Feb 11, 2019Beneath the energetic exterior, a steely resolve informs the songs.
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UncutFeb 6, 2019Sympathetic rock collaborators have written fine new Mavis albums in her spirit, and her gigs are exhilarating revival meetings for her friend Martin Luther King's mission. Focusing on those new songs, these 79th-birthday recordings don't quite capture that fervour. [Mar 2019, p. 34]
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Feb 8, 2019These arrangements may help give definition to a tune as fragile as Vernon’s “Dedicated” but, more than anything, casting these recent songs in the same light as “Touch a Hand” or “Let’s Do It Again”--a number one hit for the Staple Singers back in 1975, but rarely remembered as well as “Respect Yourself"”--helps shift the focus to how Mavis still sounds mighty as ever.