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The influences of great performers from soul music’s past can be heard in many of the artists whose music we review here on SoulTracks. You won’t get too far before hearing a performer who derives influences from the sounds of Memphis, Motown and Muscle Shoals. And those who listen to Boshra Sham’s new album Better Days will hear a lot of Steely Dan influence in the band’s music. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the guiding forces behind Steely Dan, got much of their inspiration from listening to R&B, blues and jazz. The piano theme that opens the song “Ricki” is an allusion to Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father.”
The influences of great performers from soul music’s past can be heard in many of the artists whose music we review here on SoulTracks. You won’t get too far before hearing a performer who derives influences from the sounds of Memphis, Motown and Muscle Shoals. And those who listen to Boshra Sham’s new album Better Days will hear a lot of Steely Dan influence in the band’s music. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the guiding forces behind Steely Dan, got much of their inspiration from listening to R&B, blues and jazz. The piano theme that opens the song “Ricki” is an allusion to Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father.”
Boshra Sham brings some of those jazz, R&B and funk influences to the tracks heard on Better Days (though, it should be noted, lead vocalist Jamie Thain does not sound like Fagen). However, the quality that leads me to compare Boshra Sham to Steely Dan is worldview conveyed by the best tunes on this 10-track project. Steely Dan was best known for infusing songs such as “Peg,” “Deacon Blues” and “Hey Nineteen” with stories filled with pathos and self-awareness. Songs like “Josie” have whimsical and satirical observances on modern culture. Boshra Sham also displays a penchant for creating songs brimming with the band’s unique take on the human condition.
“Metropolitan” finds Boshra Sham setting their sights on urban hipster culture that takes pride in their trend setting fashions and embrace independent non-mainstream views on politics, art and literature. The band perfectly captures the image in the song’s first verse: “In Momatra they dress to kill/panache they call it/they always will/where they smoke/and never tell a bad joke/the shoes they wear on those chic Parisian feet.”
“The Price” explores the recognition that a person is dealing with addiction, co-dependency or some sort of pathology and the inability or unwillingness to do what it takes to recover. The tune’s verses describe a person ping-ponging between recovery and relapse. “It’s calling again it’s hard to resist it/I know that it’s wrong but it feels like the right fit/if you judge me and lay the blame/I’ll probably do it again.”
“Compromise” is a relationship song that accurately describes the powerlessness a person feels when he or she is being crushed by the weight of expectations. The hook perfectly captures the exasperation expressed throughout the song. “All I want is a little bit of leeway/Just a little bit more than you’ve given before/All that I want is a little bit of compromise/You gotta make a good go/Gotta give it a try.”
We spend a lot of time discussing the virtues and vices of what has become known as retro soul. The truth is that this sub genre of soul isn’t going anywhere. As sites such as SoulTracks attest, too many soul fans crave that classic soul sound and there are plenty of performers who do good job of recreating the production values, musical arrangements, lyricism and vocal styles of Memphis, Motown and Muscle Shoals.
You won’t hear any allusions to hard-bop classics on Better Days. Still, Boshra Sham pulls off something that is more nuanced. The band captures the wry sarcasm and world weariness that was and remains so much a part of Steely Dan’s musical world view while also managing to maintain a distinct sound. That’s a pretty neat trick. Recommended.
By Howard Dukes