Soul Searchin' | |
Type: | studio |
Artist: | Jimmy Barnes |
Cover: | Soul_Searchin'_by_Jimmy_Barnes.jpg |
Released: | 3 June 2016 |
Recorded: | 2015 |
Venue: | Nashville, United States |
Genre: | Rock, soul |
Label: | Liberation Music |
Prev Title: | Best of the Soul Years |
Prev Year: | 2015 |
Next Title: | Och Aye the G'nu |
Next Year: | 2017 |
Soul Searchin' is the 16th studio album by Australian singer-songwriter, Jimmy Barnes. The album is Barnes' fourth album of soul and R&B classics following Soul Deep (1991), Soul Deeper... Songs from the Deep South (2000), and The Rhythm and the Blues (2009). The album was announced on 8 May 2016, alongside a one-hour documentary that aired on the Nine Network in June and a national tour that commenced in August. The album was released on 3 June 2016.
The Soul Searchin documentary followed Barnes to America's south on a discovery of lost soul gems and the musicians who made them and visit the places that inspired them.[1] Barnes said, "The idea was to find more obscure soul songs that people may not have heard – the diamonds in the rough. I was just looking and looking for songs that for one reason or another were skipped over or they were too hard for radio or the singer was cross-eyed – for whatever reason, these songs were missed. I can't wait to get to sing these songs again when I take them on tour. It will be wild."[2] [3]
Jeff Apter of Rolling Stone Australia gave the album 3 out of 4 saying; "Barnesy keeps his angry bird squawk in check for much of the album; his voice has rarely sounded better, or more controlled."[4]
Collin Morris from Stuff NZ gave the album 4 out of 5 saying; "Here we have Barnes searching and finding many less-known gems and imbuing them with a real sense of what soul is about."[5]
Soul Searchin debuted at number one in Australia for the week commencing 13 June 2016, thus becoming Barnes' 11th number one album. 11 number one albums is the most for a local artist, and the equal second-best (with Madonna and U2) of all time behind The Beatles at 14.[6]