Over four years,
Gabriels released an album's worth of songs laced with halting composites of gospel, doo wop, and soul, some with string arrangements worthy of thriller film scores. Along the line, they gained support from prominent BBC and KCRW DJs and famous musicians alike, leading to an appearance at the 2022 Glastonbury Festival. The trio seemed to be on the brink of a greater breakthrough when, in September 2022, they issued their first album. Make that part of it. This is actually presented as its first half, with the flipside promised for 2023, but the depth and density of
Gabriels' songs are such that the delayed gratification is just as well. (It's lengthy for a side anyway, almost 28 minutes in duration.) In completing the set,
Gabriels scrapped some summer 2022 tour dates to take advantage of the availability of
Sounwave, an in-demand producer known most for his close work with
Kendrick Lamar. In no obvious way did they compromise their previously all-internal creative process. There's more funk and a little disco in the mix -- as on the multi-tiered title song and "Remember Me," highlights haunted by ghosts of Memphis and Philadelphia, if transmitted from Mars -- but
Gabriels continue to sound out of time all the time. As with their previous recordings, some components of these seven songs sound as if they were liberated from a stash of disintegrating demos recorded in ramshackle churches and orchestra halls. Powering this is Jacob Lusk, an upper-range marvel who somehow sounds as if he's both in your face and communicating from the beyond, evoking
Eddie Kendricks at his most anguished, and
Sylvester at his most ecstatic, if with a character all his own. Moreover, the lyricism is remarkable, like when he's detailing lustful temptation with a band lurching and convulsing behind him to signify withdrawal: "Bible says it's bad, but not for me/Don't bring me fruit then say I can't eat." Regret, longing, and grief fill the other songs, but Lusk's soaring, whole-hearted articulations of hope and reassurance prevent this transfixing half-album from being an unqualified downer. ~ Andy Kellman