Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

2. Roberta FlackFirst Take

I just love this album and I love the history behind it. I don’t think it’s cheesy, I think it’s muso and I really like muso music. The origins of it, the way they found Roberta when she was young and naïve, and they realised that the only way to really capture her was to create an environment that she was used to, so they recorded it all in a church, to give her a sense of the places that she sang in when she was young. And you get that on this album, it’s fucking amazing. There’s some unbelievable songwriting. I might have first heard it when I was really young, there was always this estuary of weird and exciting people coming through this house, playing different music.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Beth Ditto, Beth Orton, Chilly Gonzales
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