These Songs Are for Anyone Sick of Earth

A straight-up soul/R’n’B album firmly rooted in the classic US soul music tradition, Aliah Sheffield’s 2023 These Songs… is small but perfectly formed. She’s a double threat, equipped with the voice of a yearning angel and a touching, down-to-earth lyricism. Album centrepiece “Earth Is Ghetto” is a perfectly crafted song: emotive chord changes, a melody that builds and swells exquisitely, and lyrics that swoop so poignantly from the macro to the micro: “And the sick are dying, crooked police/Politicians lying, cramming laws on the street/I got five on fuel if you need it from me,” that they get this writer in the heart every time. “Never Drinking Again” is classic mid-seventies deep Southern soul reborn, “Some Of You” adds luxurious Chicago soul orchestration, and “I Don’t Like People” is pure 21st-century folk-blues. Only 8 tracks, four of them under 3 minutes, and it still feels like value for money.