Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Black Pumas, ATO Records 2021.
Colors is the Grammy nominated first single lifted from Black Pumas’ self-titled album which was released in 2019.
The album has also been nominated for the Grammy for Record of The Year and Best American Roots Performance.
Colors is a fantastic soul drenched number that calls for racial harmony and it was performed at President Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
There is a wonderful live performance of the song on YouTube which is really worth checking out.
Black Pumas is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada who turned an unplanned meeting into a multi-Grammy nominated act.
Quesada was looking for the right voice to do some retro-funk/R&B/soul tracks that he’d been working on when the two met.
On hearing Eric sing he knew that he’d found the right person.
The duo released their debut album, Black Pumas, on June 21, 2019, and the rest is history.
The album received rave reviews from the music press including Rolling Stone who singled out Eric Burton for the “charismatic energy of singer Eric Burton” and the Pitchfork reviewer said, “the duo’s flair for drama is so stirring, they can seem acutely cinematic.”
Colors has so far racked up over 200 million streams, has been Shazam-ed over 1.7 million times, and the live video I mentioned earlier has been viewed more than 92 million times.
I am yet to hear the entire album but if this single is anything to go by it should be a beauty.
The band has been in high demand since the single’s release, performing onThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert,CBS’ This Morning, NPR Tiny Desk, Jimmy Kimmel Live,The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America… and the list goes on.
The band’s trajectory is on a near vertical take-off so if you haven’t already picked up on them check out that video clip, it’s worth it.
