MICHELLE DAVID - Soul Woman

Michelle David's relationship with music goes back further than one might imagine. She was just four years old when she joined a New York gospel choir, a passion she kept cultivating throughout her studies. While earning a degree in Medicine, Michelle performed in a number of Broadway musicals, before moving to Europe, first to Germany and later to Holland, where she found considerable success as a gospel singer in theatre shows and TV appearances.

Her return to America brought a string of important collaborations, from Diana Ross to Michael Bolton, but after a brief spell back in Germany, Michelle settled in Amsterdam, where she now lives with her husband and three children.

The ever-attentive Milanese label Record Kicks spotted the artist back in 2006, including her on the compilation "Let's Boogaloo vol 3", before eventually signing her with the release of the excellent "Brothers And Sisters" in 2024.

"Soul Woman" is the third album the soul singer has shared with the Dutch group The True Tones; the two guitarists, Onno Smit and Paul Willemsen, are largely responsible for the songwriting, and it's the tight chemistry between the musicians that makes this eighth album by the American artist such a resounding success.

Northern Soul and Tamla Motown-style r&b are the two archetypes underpinning an album brimming with swing, soul, funk and afrobeat filtered through a deftly retro lens. Recorded largely live at Paul Willemsen's studio during unconventional jam sessions, and using instruments that weren't necessarily amplified, "Soul Woman" is without doubt the best record Michelle David has put together so far, the fruit of long experience and genuine songwriting deeply rooted in the finest soul tradition.

The gripping uptempo of "Speak To Me" and the equally vibrant northern soul of "Running" set the tone right away: Michelle brings real class not only to the most rhythmically exuberant tracks - the afro-beat-funk title track and the Marvin Gaye-esque soul of "You'll Never Know" - but also to the more measured ballads, like "Pick Up The Pieces", or the silkier ones, such as "When All Is Said And Done".

Instrumental versatility, lyrics that never fall into cliché ("I Thank You") and vibrant live-in-studio sound ("Seasons") keep the album's overall quality high.

"Soul Woman" is a project that fans of Sharon Jones, Lee Fields and Charles Bradley will surely appreciate, while skeptics are encouraged to spare at least six minutes for the adventurous psychedelic soul-gospel of "Flow".

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08/04/2026