Any Aretha Franklin album
Any of her albums, really. She earned that title ‘Queen Of Soul’ with things like ‘Spanish Harlem‘, and ‘I Never Loved A Man The Way That I Love You’. My favourite stuff is when she plays the piano and sings, and it’s so powerful that the microphone is distorting. I read this thing about how the backing vocals on her records are really dry and up-front, and the reason for that was she had to stand at the back of the room, because otherwise the microphone would fucking blow up! So you’ve got the natural reverb on her voice, but the backing vocals are really close and dry. And it makes an amazing sound. But again, a really tortured soul who had the most amazing voice, which transcends ordinary craftsmanship and becomes magical.