Singles

Comfort Me

Holly Barnes 01/08/2006

Rating: 4/5

Bit of an odd choice, this. Originally released in 1966, Carla Thomas' Comfort Me is enjoying renewed popularity 40 years later, thanks to a fabric conditioner advert featuring those strange, but wonderful, dolls. However gimmicky it may be for old-school soul music (that actually had some soul, rather than today's often grotesquely crude version) to be associated with advertising, if it brings older music to new ears and gives success to the new Stax Gold Hits album from which this is taken, then more power to it. This is a classic cut, with silky impassioned vocals, soft brass and a warm production style that does exactly as the title suggest: it comforts. And, as with tracks from the era, at 2 minutes 41, it doesn't overstay its welcome, leaving you wanting more and more…and more.