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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Damien Morris

Gabriels: Angels & Queens review – sensational second chapter from the retro-future soul trio

Gabriels’ Jacob Lusk, centre, with Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian, sitting on a staircase and laughing
‘Analogue velvet’: Gabriels’ Jacob Lusk, centre, with Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian. Photograph: PR IMAGE

In 2021, UK-LA trio Gabriels’ two EPs gifted us astonishing songs such as Innocence, choir director Jacob Lusk’s eaves-shaking vocals spotlit in a sparse orchestral setting that invoked the holy dread of foundational 1940s rhythm and blues. This release – last year’s debut album, Angels & Queens Part 1, buttressed by six newer songs – is just as extraordinary. Lusk, with bandmates Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian, reassembles elements of R&B’s past into fascinating new forms, pin-sharp digital production creating pleasurable dissonance with the analogue velvet of Lusk’s voice.

By turns proud, imploring, seductive and declamatory, Lusk wrestles with loss – of love, of faith, of mind – sometimes untethered from sense, often tortured by temptation. The standout is Love and Hate in a Different Time’s euphoric eschatology, an extroversion of their signature sound. Or is it the title track’s slippery funk? Maybe it’s Taboo, with more drama in its three minutes than a Broadway musical. Possibly the sensational Streisand-quoting heartbreakers Professional and We Will Remember are better. It’s impossible to choose. Every song is a wonder. It is unlikely Angels & Queens will inspire many imitators of its retro-future soul, its damaged doo-wop. It’s simply too good to be copied.

Watch the video for Angels & Queens by Gabriels.
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