Album: Eli 'Paperboy' Reed, Come & Get It (Capitol)

Excitable US soul boy. White, be-quiffed, in love with the sound of the late 1960s. Thinks soul is about letting rip until your trousers split.

His horn-heavy band thinks so, too. So don't go expecting either the measured coolth of Southside Johnny or the originality of early Dexy's. Here be pastiche. Moderately written pastiche, too. He's best when he, ahem, "channels" Solomon Burke. But more of the time he's doing the northern soul splits. Rrrrrrrip. Pretty impressive but extremely shrill.