If ever we need Mavis Staples, it’s now. The 86-year-old has been there, done that, and is still standing, or at least according to her new album’s cover, sitting, hands-crossed at the table.
Maybe a little less steady in the voice and on her feet than in her soulful Staple Singers pomp, as the world swirls, it’s good to know that the best things don’t change.
Staples has enjoyed a late-career renaissance not dissimilar to Johnny Cash, thanks to her own inventiveness and canny choice of 21st-century producers including Ry Cooder, M. Ward and Jeff Tweedy.
Sad And Beautiful World sees another canny pair-up, this time with Brad Cook. Despite his work with the likes of Bon Iver, it’s his production on brother Phil’s LPs People Are My Drug and Southland Mission that bears the closest resemblance to the earthy vibe here. Subtle organs, horns and guitars lay a plump, warm bed for Mavis’ weathered, rich vocals.
The singer and producer’s pick of songs is insightful and inspired. One of the first they bagged, Kevin Morby’s ‘Beautiful Strangers’, is also one of the best. A mournful psalm to the 2016 Bataclan shootings, Staple brings a gentle defiance to Morby’s rolling verses, the line “can’t stand the coppers/up in their choppers” given heft by her civil rights history.
Similarly, a woman whose family opened for Martin Luther King Jr at his 1960s rallies is ideally placed to capture the essence of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘We Got To Have Peace’; here revived in rootsy, celebratory style.
The best covers send you back to the original artist for deeper exploration; encapsulated on the album’s title track, a haunting rendition of Mark Linkous’ song from his Sparklehorse debut. Mavis mines its transcendent hues in a way that honours the late Linkous’ bittersweet gifts.
Other fresh takes that twinkle include the tender harmonies of Gillian Welch’s ‘Hard Times’, sizzling Tom Waits opener ‘Chicago’ and the gospel-quiver of Frank Ocean’s ‘Godspeed’.
The only original track is the aching ‘Human Mind’, specially tailored for the album by Hozier and Alison Russell. Addressing Pop Staples, a devastated Mavis sings: “I deal in loss, Daddy/I am the last, Daddy”. Further guests on Sad And Beautiful World span the generations, from guitar legends Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy to new Americana icon MJ Lenderman, or more literally, with father and son pairing Jeff and Spencer Tweedy.
Even with the weight of emotion, this is not a heavy or despairing record. If we ever forget the cracks that allow the light in, Staples’ version of Leonard Cohen’s hymn ‘Anthem’ is a stately reminder that “every heart to love will come”.
And aptly, Mavis has the last chuckle – a joyful burst of dirty laughter that pops from the speakers a few seconds after the album’s final song, ‘Everybody Needs Love’. Sadness and beauty has never felt so willful and hopeful in these safest, and strongest, of fragile hands.