It’s one thing to be great at your chosen genre of music — it’s another thing to require a new genre entirely. The powerhouse behind North Carolina’s LOVESUCKER, Crystal Crosby, dubs the rock/funk/soul duo’s sound “gypsy soul,” a fitting term for its beat-driven, yet entirely accessible makeup. ”It’s a state of mind,” she says. “Freedom, movement, fire, and heart, even if it’s fragmented…to move through a song and sound with fluidity and transparency, embracing those things that we speak of — love, spark and hope, dazzled with trickery and fury.”
Leading the charge is single “Mississippi,” an infectious, Delta blues-tinged groove with lyrics that tell the story of a dead slave haunting a former owner, while Crosby channels Jefferson Airplane-era Grace Slick on the funk-filled “Show Me.” Meanwhile, the slightly darker “Guns and Gasoline” is flavored with synth and glittering guitar backbeat, showing the versatility of the pair. Appropriately, LOVESUCKER declares that its “sum is greater than its parts,” and its newest offerings only prove the truth of the statement.
Both Crosby and collaborator Zolton Van Bury looked to the past on the band’s new, self-titled, five-song EP, citing the 1970s as a musical decade of inspiration. “I write music with an indie sensibility, embracing early ’70s true-funk tones and nuances,” explains Van Bury. ”Nothing more than that. So the descriptions ‘indie funk’ and ‘gypsy soul’ actually have a true meaning or a power source, if you will. That is who we are and what we do.”
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