James Hunter: People Gonna Talk : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Colchester, England, native James Hunter has long been championed by no less an R&B gatekeeper than Van Morrison, and one listen to these fourteen Hunter-penned gems will incite a rush to second that endorsement. Bits of Van the Man and Sam Cooke can be heard in the aching grain of Hunter's voice, but his clearest antecedent is Charlie Rich, the Sun Records singer whose late-Fifties/early-Sixties sides hit the sweet spot where country, soul and rock & roll come together. People Gonna Talk was produced by Liam Watson at Toe Rag (the strictly vintage-gear London studio that birthed the White Stripes' Elephant), and its laid-back title track combines a reggae rhythm and pizzicato strings for something timeless yet fresh. The double-saxophone attack of tenor man Damian Hand and baritone Lee Badau swings hard on "Tell Her for Me," and "'Til Your Fool Comes Home" is a wry warning against philandering where Hunter's twangy guitar comes down like the lash. Ten years after his debut long-player, Believe What I Say, came out in the U.K., Hunter's first album to see stateside release is a treat not to miss.