Broadway

As wonderful and cool as the vintage soul revival is, one must tread carefully to not get caught up in attractive sharp suits and big budgets. The Bay Area’s Myron & E (Myron Glasper and Eric Cooke) have worked with Blackalicious and other artists. They feel very much like the real thing: a tall pour of silky-smooth, hip-swaying soul. With strings and funky horns courtesy of the retro Finnish group The Soul Investigators (check out their groove-heavy recordings available on iTunes), Myron & E’s full-length debut pulses with top-notch writing and arranging. A few tunes are sure to take listeners of a certain age back to another time with alarming acuity. Don’t be dissuaded by the tepid ballad “Turn Back,” which opens Broadway; go right to the buttery title track or the organ riff-driven funk gem “Cold Game.” The romantic, undulant “If I Gave You My Love” features Myron’s supple falsetto, an inarguable highlight of the duo's sound. Broadway's vibe is one of a neon-lit, simpler time, and there’s nothing wrong with a long night of dancing to celebrate a certain slice of Americana that so richly helped shape who we are today.