Martin Amis contended that writing becomes “less significant [when] anyone could have written it”. The authorial voice is king. Maybe he’d have appreciated how fully Black Pumas’ singer-songwriter Eric Burton’s joyful, antic spirit defines the soul revivalists’ excellent second album. Surely no one else could come up with the one-two punch of sun-dappled single Mrs Postman, wherein Burton delivers a bushy-tailed tribute to blue-collar work, before approaching the title track from the perspective of a diamond in the back seat of a Cadillac.
Producer and co-writer Adrian Quesada also plays his A game. Black Pumas’ searing live show (“electric church”, according to Burton), as seen at events such as the Grammys and President Biden’s inauguration, feeds back into Quesada’s studio science here, broadening and deepening the band’s Neil Young meets Wu-Tang vibe. Although their self-titled debut had a glittering aura, the basic standard here is higher. From first note to last, Chronicles of a Diamond swaggers from the speakers. Even the love songs have new light cast on that hoary old topic by the roaring fire of Burton’s voice, while Quesada layers psychedelics and electronica into the orchestral mix, always conjuring new charms from familiar elements.
