Divine

○○○○○

IF YOU only listen to one gospel album this year, then Christ almighty, make sure it's this one.
Although What Have You Done, My Brother? is Naomi Shelton And The Gospel Queens' debut album, there's clearly a lifetime of music spilling forth here.
Shelton has a rasping lived-in quality to her voice, and although the basis of the collection is organ-and-choir gospel, a large swath of the LP has been soaked to the core with a Motown soul groove.
Out of a genre that most people would consider a stagnant backwater, Naomi Shelton And The Gospel Queens have delivered an album that's uplifting, optimistic and worthy rather than an homage to the past.
Amen to that, I say.