Last year, the Revelations featuring Tre Williams released their Deep Soul EP, which was not only one of my favorite recordings of the year, but one that I voted for in the upcoming “Top Albums of the Decade” feature here at Popdose. For their debut full-length album, The Bleeding Edge (Decision Records / Traffic Entertainment), the Revelations have added an additional eight songs to the EP’s seven. Let me get this out of the way here, because if it’s true for the Avett Brothers, it’s true for the Revelations. Fifteen songs is too many for an album. The original seven were great. Three or four more would have been perfect for the album. As it is, not all of the new songs rise to the level of those on the EP, and a nearly perfect soul album could have been gleaned from a more judicious selection of songs. I intend to keep fighting this fight against extreme album length, so I hope you’ll give me some room on this.
Tre Williams is a force of nature. I would argue that he is one of the greatest male soul and R&B vocalists to emerge since the heyday of Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross, though stylistically he reminds me more of the immortal David Ruffin. Williams is ably assisted by former Roc-a-Fella artist Rell, who is Williams’ co-lyricist and vocalist. The Revelations themselves sound like they were picked up on the street, and I mean that in the very best possible way. The truth is that the band is populated by musicians who have performed with Wyclef Jean, Lauren Hill, Matisyahu, Sly and Robbie, Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, and others. (more…)
