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First Listen: Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings, 'Give The People What They Want'

<em>Give the People What They Want</em>, Sharon Jones' new album with The Dap-Kings, comes out Jan. 14.
Paul McGeiver
/
Courtesy of the artist
Give the People What They Want, Sharon Jones' new album with The Dap-Kings, comes out Jan. 14.

For veteran soul singer Sharon Jones, 2013 was a year of frustration, fear and false starts: She'd just announced the summer release of her fifth album, Give the People What They Want, when she was diagnosed with cancer and had to put her career on hold. Tours were canceled, while the finished record had to be shelved until she'd recovered to where she was in a position to promote it. Anyone who's seen Jones live knows how much she pours into performing, so fans appeared to be in for a long wait.

All of which makes the arrival of Give the People What They Want — accompanied by a planned return to the stage in February — especially gratifying. Though it was recorded before Jones' initial diagnosis, it's hard not to hear special poignancy in the album's tone of defiance, as the singer dismisses old lovers ("Retreat!"), fake friends ("Now I See") and the idle rich ("People Don't Get What They Deserve") with stubborn assertiveness.

Set, as always, against The Dap-Kings' characteristically springy horns, Jones growls and struts through 10 timeless songs that couldn't sound better suited to the big stage. It's to her credit that the studio serves them, too, throughout an album that deftly and efficiently carries out the mission suggested by its title. She wasn't gone long, thank goodness, but it's so nice to have her back.

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Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)