Every so often you may hear someone (doubtless in my own age bracket...) say something like, “The music ya hear these days just tain’t what it used to be! Nothin’ new an’ jest nowheres near as good.” To answer such skeptics and naysayers, ladies and gentlemen, I give you War and Treaty.
This husband & wife team (Tanya Blount-Trotter and Michael Trotter Jr.) has garnered a lot of attention with their high-energy fusion of soul, gospel, blues and other influences into an impressively blended sound. They have won awards, made appearances in different media, and worked with some well-known musical luminaries. Their earlier debut album, 2018’s Healing Tide, has its moments, but this sophomore effort brings their talents to a somewhat higher level.
The couple’s vocals are outstanding – engaging, expressive and weaving around and complimenting each other in a crafted and solid sound. The instrumentation is also excellent and quite varied, including keyboards, guitar, cello, drums, organ, horns, and more. The overall sound is... impressive, to say the least.
The album kicks off with “Yearning,” that despite having a moderate-tempo displays the soulful intensity that the couple brings to their music. Not all songs are kick-it-out, hard driving numbers. I think my favorite cut – it’s hard to pick one – is “Jubilee,” which is slower yet in tempo and almost quiet in tone, but here the couple’s vocals carry this cut to soaring, engaging, and powerful heights. Even the slower numbers have a burning intensity unlike just about any other group that you will have heard.
A Rolling Stone reviewer called them “rock-infused soul,” and though I won’t argue with that I wish there was a better way to characterize them. I’d suggest that their sound is rooted in R&B, but they pull in so many other influences it’s hard to pigeonhole it. And it shouldn’t need to be pigeonholed. It’s just involving, often high-energy, well-done music that is not for the faint of heart.
You can say that the couple are not really charting fundamental new directions in music. To that I say, go off and listen to modern jazz or what you will if that is your only criteria of good music. This couple’s sound is admittedly an amalgam of different styles that is blended and developed into an exciting and engaging sound that – like that of many great artists – seems new. And hey, that is certainly good enough for me.
The couple released a new album earlier this year titled Lover’s Game, that maybe I should be reviewing here, but... I don’t have it – yet. I think I’m going to have to pick it up.