A heads-up for soul fans about Dapettes Saun and Starr’s debut Look Closer (Daptone Records)  – ‘Hot Shot’ above is the second track – to be released in May.

Saun (Saundra Williams) and Starr (Duncan-Lowe) are backing vocalists for Sharon King and the Dap-Kings the pair both from the South Bronx who in the 1990s with Jones were in the Good ’n’ Plenty Girls wedding band, Starr going on to tour with the Glory Gospel Singers and Sister Act while Saun debuted with her own album Bless the Day S&S reuniting with Sharon King in 2008 for the two to become the Dapettes.

The complete track listing is ‘Look Closer (Can't You See The Signs)’ horns riffing perkily off the vocal; telling-off song ‘Hot Shot’ with strong percussion and more daring brass backing the vocal pair whose voices blend to perfection; ‘Gonna Make Time’ more laidback and sultry; the groovin’ ‘Sunshine (You’re Blowin’ My Cool)’; gorgeous weepie ‘If Only’; ‘Another Love Like Mine’ with its spoken word opener and gutsy sense of female empowerment (a big theme of the album overall in the lyrics); ‘Big Wheel’ a really infectious dancefloor stomper another huge highlight; ‘Your Face Before My Eyes’ with its lively mobile interplay between singers and horns; ‘Dear Mr Teddy’ moving into more of a classic Marvin Gaye-like space; ‘In the Night’ the big statement vocal set against rickety bass guitar with a mock theatricality to it; and finally the quirky ‘Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah,’ showing that these two could sing the phone book and make any number ring.