TSOP is a regular song review segment I'll be writing for this blog. It stands for "The Sound of Philadelphia", which refers to a specific Philly soul music scene in the 1970s and 80s surrounding Sigma Sound Studios and the production team of Gamble & Huff. The funky, proto-disco soul music that came out of that scene featured soulful pop influenced by gospel, funk, and R&B, often with soaring string arrangements. It's like a Motown-meets-disco kind of sound. The perfect illustration of this comparison is the Jackson 5 leaving Motown and recording their first album as "The Jacksons" at Sigma Sound in Philly. Also, "T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)" is a song by MFSB, a Philly band also from that scene.

 

Me naming my segment TSOP might be a little confusing because rather than reviewing only songs from that particular music scene, I'll be reviewing any and all music from Philly artists or music recorded in Philly.

 

To further the confusion, I'm kicking this segment off with a review of Lou Rawls' "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" from his 1976 album All Things in Time, recorded and produced at Sigma Sound. Lou Rawls was born and raised Chicago, where he cut his teeth singing gospel music at his Baptist church on the south side. He sung in some touring gospel groups for awhile, enlisted in the Army, got discharged, got in a car accident with Sam Cooke, and eventually made his way to Philly, where he reinvented his image with the help of Gamble & Huff. He recorded All Things in Time and this slapper of a song.

 

The bass grooves, the strings sweep, and the electric and acoustic pianos do a call and response thing that scratches my brain every time I hear it. Shout out to the congas on this track. The way the song builds is perfect. Rawls starts quiet in the verse and then rises into a prechorus (the low piano glissando hits every time!) which dissolves down into another verse, then we get another prechorus and he finally hits us with that groovy, infectious chorus.

 

I recently read an opinion piece in The Point about art criticism where the author was criticizing modern critics for not truly evaluating art as much for fear of being wrong in hindsight. I think am guilty of this sometimes in my reviews of music; I tend to focus on explaining my own subjective experience with it while providing objective facts and context about the music. So I'll take this opportunity to be unambigous and direct with my opinion: "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" is a great song. Not that this is a controversial or original thought. This song has existed for almost 50 years and it has endured as one of the most successful songs not only of Lou Rawls' career but of the Philly soul scene in general. "You'll never find..."

 

If you want to listen to it on Spotify, just click here.