Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits

Bad Self Portraits is the album that carried Lake Street Dive from Boston club favourites to a national audience, and this remastered reissue puts it back on vinyl.

The band formed at the New England Conservatory in Boston, four conservatory-trained musicians who found common ground in classic soul, sixties pop and rootsy harmony. A homemade video of them covering the Jackson 5 went viral in 2012, and by the time this record arrived in 2014, a huge new audience was waiting to hear what they could do with their own songs.

The answer was plenty. Rachael Price's voice is the headline, rich and agile enough to go from a purr to a full-throated belt in a single line, but the band around her is just as sharp. The title track Bad Self Portraits sets a wry tale of loneliness to a breezy, Motown-flavoured groove. You Go Down Smooth swings with Bridget Kearney's walking upright bass, Stop Your Crying struts with brassy confidence, and Seventeen is a bittersweet look back at adolescent longing.

It is smart and endlessly hummable, the work of a band that knows its history and writes with a wink. For fans of retro soul with a modern pen, this belongs on the shelf.