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Annie & the Caldwells: Can’t Lose My (Soul) review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week


Forty years into their career, this family band deliver their debut – and it’s a life-affirming album full of spontaneity and seemingly telepathic harmonising

It came to the attention of Greg Belson, a British-born, LA-based soul DJ, who has carved out a niche playing recherché dancefloor-friendly gospel (if you want to hear the Lord’s praises being sung amid the sweatily hedonistic environs of Glastonbury’s gay club NYC Downlow, then he’s your go-to guy). Caldwell’s surprise at being contacted about records she had made in her early teens didn’t deter her from suggesting Byrne’s label might also be interested in the band she had been leading for the last 40 years, comprised of her husband, children and goddaughter. The vocals are raw but perfectly pitched; there’s a kind of telepathic interplay between Annie Caldwell’s lead and the harmonies of her daughters during the improvised sections of the lengthy title track and Don’t You Hear Me Calling.

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