True Spirit

Having fronted influential UK soul outfit The Young Disciples and supplied backing vocals for Paul Weller (Weller’s long time producer Brendan Lynch also produced this), Carleen Anderson dropped her debut album True Spirit in 1994. It’s mostly written by Anderson and is smart, hip hop flavoured street-soul with restrained arrangements and instrumentation that leave plenty of room for Anderson’s silky, show-stopping vocals and backing vocals. There are a few big ballads but this is generally mid-tempo hip hop-soul like the hit singles the classy ‘Mama Said’ and ‘True Spirit’. A strong, sophisticated debut.