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Nov 18, 2021 Web Exclusive By Haydon Spenceley

How does an album from a pastor with an interesting backstory (look him up) become hailed as “The most euphoric celebratory music that makes you want to jump around the house and explode with joy” by no less a musical doyen than Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood? Well we may ask, but if we’re looking for answers we can look no further than this exhaustive box set reissue from Numero Group of the collected works of Pastor T.L. Barrett.

Some of what’s collected on the five discs here might be familiar, such as the seminal Like a Ship… (Without a Sail) and Do Not Pass Me By—classic albums reissued in recent times and which form part of this collection. If you’ve heard these albums, you know they contain, as Greenwood opines, unusually euphoric and potent examples of a joyful search for love and hope.

Elsewhere, the groove-laden version of “Lord’s Prayer” is a huge highlight sure to stir even the hardest of hearts and what is noteworthy is that, even as the collection is a large one there is a consistency of heart, soul, and a tightness of arrangement which marks Barrett out as one of the finest exponents of ’70s gospel and funk that there is. This is a fine and exciting collection worthy of rapt attention. (www.pastortlbarrett.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10