

As wonderful and cool as the vintage soul revival is, one must tread carefully to not get caught up in attractive sharp suits and big budgets. The Bay Area’s Myron & E (Myron Glasper and Eric Cooke) have worked with Blackalicious and other artists. They feel very much like the real thing: a tall pour of silky-smooth, hip-swaying soul. With strings and funky horns courtesy of the retro Finnish group The Soul Investigators (check out their groove-heavy recordings available on iTunes), Myron & E’s full-length debut pulses with top-notch writing and arranging. A few tunes are sure to take listeners of a certain age back to another time with alarming acuity. Don’t be dissuaded by the tepid ballad “Turn Back,” which opens Broadway; go right to the buttery title track or the organ riff-driven funk gem “Cold Game.” The romantic, undulant “If I Gave You My Love” features Myron’s supple falsetto, an inarguable highlight of the duo's sound. Broadway's vibe is one of a neon-lit, simpler time, and there’s nothing wrong with a long night of dancing to celebrate a certain slice of Americana that so richly helped shape who we are today.