Harlem Gospel Travelers: Look Up! (powder blue) LP

Things are looking up for The Harlem Gospel Travelers, who return here with a new album, a new lineup, and a new lease on life. Produced by Eli Paperboy Reed, Look Up! marks the group's first full-length release as a trio, as well as their first collection of totally original material, and it couldn't have come at a more vital moment. The music still draws deeply on the gospel quartet tradition of the '50s and '60s, of course, but there's a distinctly modern edge to the record, an unmistakable reflection of the tumultuous past few years of pandemic anxiety, political chaos, and social unrest. The songs are bold and resilient, facing down doubt and despair with faith and perseverance, and the performances are explosive and ecstatic, fueled by dazzling vocal arrangements punctuated with gritty bursts of guitar and crunchy rhythm breaks.