Mavis Staples – Sad & Beautiful World (Indie Exclusive Marbled Violet Colored LP Vinyl) Vinyl Record

Review

After 38 minutes of stirring, spiritual music, Mavis Staples' Sad and Beautiful World ends with a chuckle—that deep, joyful laugh reflecting 86 years of a life lived righteously.

It's like a hidden track, coming 20 seconds after Staples' uplifting version of Eddie Hinton's "Everybody Needs Love" fades away. Staples' laughter ends the album on a perfect note; though the song would've been fine, too.

Sad and Beautiful World begins 38 minutes earlier with Staples' powerful take on Tom Waits' "Chicago," on which Buddy Guy and Derek Trucks tangle and Staples sings with grit and gusto.

All but one of the 10 tracks is a cover, but that doesn't make Sad and Beautiful World, with additional cameos from Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Justin Vernon and others, any less a Mavis Staples album. By the time she's finished with Sparklehorse's gentle title track, Curtis Mayfield urgent "We Got to Have Peace," Kevin Morby's heart-wrenching "Beautiful Strangers," they're all Mavis Staples songs.

"Think of mother/I am a rock," Staples sings on the latter. And though she didn't write these words, she owns them now.

— Kristopher Weiss, Relix

Product Details

Grim days call for fierce love. And Mavis Staples, one of the most enduring figures in American music, is laying it down. Sad And Beautiful World is the latest solo album from a national treasure and multigenerational talent. Produced by Brad Cook, Sad And Beautiful World spans seven decades of the American songbook - a range nearly as vast as Mavis' career - and includes reinventions of timeless songs by Tom Waits, Sparklehorse, Gillian Welch, Frank Ocean and more. Cook imagined an album in the tradition of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, a group of artists coming together to celebrate community - in this case, one centered on Mavis. Collaborators include Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Derek Trucks, Katie Crutchfield, MJ Lenderman, and Justin Vernon. Inducted into several halls of fame (Blues, Rock, and Gospel), a Kennedy Center Honoree, a winner of multiple GRAMMYs (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), Mavis is musical history. She's collaborated with nearly every major figure of her era(s), from Bob Dylan to Prince, Aretha Franklin, and Willie Nelson - not to mention countless stars from subsequent generations.