Girl Eden Bradley

Eden is the debut studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 4 June 1984 by Blanco y Negro Records. The album contains the single "Each and Every One", which peaked at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. The cover design was by lead singer Tracey Thorn's former colleague in the Marine Girls, Jane Fox. By 2012, Eden had sold around 500,000 copies. Eden was reissued in 2012 as a remastered edition by Edsel Records.

If Wilson Pickett could cover the Archies and Al Green could interpret the Bee Gees, why shouldn't Charles Bradley put his spin on Black Sabbath? Bradley's deep, soulful reading of Black Sabbath's "Changes" (from 1972's Vol. 4) became something of a viral sensation when it first surfaced on a Record Store Day single in 2013. Now it's become the title track and cornerstone of Bradley's third album, and in this context it doesn't sound like a novelty, but like the striking, deeply felt performance it truly is. As on his two previous albums, Bradley is one of the most authentic-sounding artists in the 2010s retro-soul sweepstakes on Changes. The production by Thomas Brenneck is straightforward but naturalistically effective, and puts Bradley's rough but passionate vocals in engaging relief with the accompanists. (Most of the album features the Menahan Street Band backing Bradley, though the Budos Band does the honors on two cuts.) Most of the songs on Changes are new, but they sound like they could have been prize Atlantic or Stax rarities from the mid-'60s, and the performances honor the sound and the emotional power of classic soul.

A typical organ-led instrumental rock album from 1970, On the Way to Eden was Eden Rose's sole LP. Despite the strong filiation between Eden Rose and Sandrose (both groups have the same lineup), the two of them could hardly be more different. Instead of the latter's symphonic progressive rock, Eden Rose's music is a bluesy kind of rock influenced by Procol Harum, Savoy Brown, and early Atomic Rooster. Keyboardist Henri Garella runs the show, penning down all the tracks and playing lead. A very good organist (and already a sought-after session man at the time), he plays fast solos, knows how to make his chords sound dirty (and/or cheesy), and how to groove on the Hammond, but his writing cruelly lacks originality…

Eden Brent hails from Greenville, MS, a place steeped in the Delta blues, but she's only 300 miles from New Orleans, and it's that city's carefree rhythms and happy-go-lucky attitude that informs the music on Brent's second album. Brent is a piano player with an impressive groove anchored by a strong rhythmic left hand and a playful way with the high end of the keyboard. Her vocals are just as strong, with a smoky, sultry feel that often brings to mind Janis Joplin, but a mellower Joplin who doesn't have to strain for the high notes or growl to get her point across. She's also a first-class songwriter, using the blues as a jumping-off place for her ironic musings on the familiar subjects of good times and no-good men. She cut this album in New Orleans and is joined by some remarkable players, including ex-Meter George Porter on bass, producer Colin Linden on guitar, and ace Americana drummer Bryan Owings.