Gabriels

One Liner: Throwback soul bops with co-signs from Sir Elton and Harry Styles

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but classic 60's soul
Home:  L.A.

Poster Position: 17
Weekend One Only.  Friday.

Thoughts:  Their website shows that they are playing the Moody Center five times from 9/25 through 10/2.  Are they opening for Harry Styles?  Yep, these dudes scored a slot opening for Harry Styles.  That is huge for them!  

An L.A. trio, they make classic 60's soul for most of their popular tracks, and then devolve into a more regular R&B in some of their less popular tracks.  Total throwback stuff for the top tracks.  The band is named after the street where the producer grew up - St. Gabriel's Ave. in Sunderland, a town in Northern England.  The other two members are from California.  They have grabbed some famous fans (other than Harry Styles) with a big props from Elton John, who called their hit "one of the most seminal records I've heard in the last ten years."

That song, "Love and Hate in a Different Time," brings to mind some movie score that I can't place.  Something like Driving Miss Daisy or Rain Man - that piano lick is very familiar in my head.  There is an alternate version on Spotify that removed the horns and has amore stripped down sound, and you can really hear it there.  But that is the top track, with 7.9 million streams and an old-time classic soul sound.

The lead singer is from Compton, and was a gospel singer before coming on board with these other two guys.  He never heard much in the way of secular music growing up, and so he never saw himself having a music career until these guys found him.  He tried out for American Idol, but his big moment came during the Black Lives Matter protests when he sang an impromptu version of "Strange Fruit" through a megaphone.

Two EPs so far - 2021's Love and Hate in a Different Time and 2021's Bloodline.  All of them rock a relatively similar vibe.  The new single is called "One and Only," and was released in 2022.  Just over one million streams.

That is definitely where they are shining - that throwback soul stuff showcasing the lead singer's great voice.  It sounds really good.  I'm not personally in love with it - if I wanted to listen to classic 60's soul I could just go listen to classic 60's soul, but I'd also dig seeing them do it in person.