Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – 100 Days,100 Nights

• 13th May 2008

Artwork is important, a good one can sometimes persuade a passer by to investigate further while a bad one can make them run away very very fast and very very far.

The sight of a skull usually suggests metal, mythical creatures suggest prog. This song has a bad front cover, a stark black and white image of a female singer and her backing band dolled up in suits, flat caps and brass instruments hanging from their necks. It’s an image that makes me think of Jazz tinged singers from the fifties, a time when teenagers and colour TV hadn’t yet been invented and a time when your Gran describes as people being able to walk the streets safely at night with out getting a; shot, b: knifed or c: propositioned by some low life for 20p for the bus.

To find out that this song sounds exactly like I feared confirms one thing, you may not be able to judge a book by its cover but a record is another beast entirely.