The highly anticipated follow-up to their breakout 2022 self-titled debut, Thee Sacred Soul’s Got A Story To Tell (Daptone Records) features 12 all original new songs, a soaring statement of exquisite craftsmanship from this young band from San Diego whose own story grows bigger by the day. Millions of monthly listeners on Spotify. Celebrity fans like SZA, Alicia Keys, and Kylie Jenner. An NPR Tiny Desk performance that burned the house down. And all in the first two years of the band’s existence. Then came life on the road.
Since 2022, Thee Sacred Souls have toured North America and Europe, playing their sweet soul music at dozens and dozens of sold-out headlining shows, and in the process they went from young musicians to a tight-knit, stress-tested band who knew each other like family. All the great bands were made better by life on the road, and Thee Sacred Souls is ready to join that pantheon. Got A Story To Tell is in every way a tighter and emotionally richer record because of their journey.
The challenges of touring resulted in a darker, more mature record, Alejandro Garcia (drums, guitar) says. Salvador Samano (bass, drums) agrees: “As we got busier, we were all dealing with things back home, trying to balance life and music and touring.” Heartbreak, family issues, finding ways to be creative when you’re leaving it all on the stage every night. Every member had their own experience, and no new development went undetected by their bandmates. “You can’t hide how you’re feeling,” Garcia says, of the intimacy of touring. “We know what’s going with each other.”
But it’s not as if the songs on Got A Story To Tell, which they began writing at the end of 2022, are accounts of a band on the run; there’s no “Turn the Page” here. Josh Lane (vocals) says all those emotions and personal stories from the three founders were sprinkled into the songwriting to create a potent blend of truth and imagination. In an age where pop stars have their albums treated like chapters in an ongoing memoir, Thee Sacred Souls hearken back to the more universal, relatable school of songwriting that made Hitsville U.S.A. and the Brill Building so successful and timeless.
Lead single and opening song “Lucid Girl” is Thee Sacred Souls’ entry into the canon of pop and R&B songwriting that champions independent women. (Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman” is but one example.) It started as an instrumental that Garcia wrote one Christmas morning, during a moment of quiet heartache and solitude. Driving away from the studio to see family in the afternoon after cutting the track, the phrase popped into his head: “lucid girl.” It was perfect fodder for Lane to start his work.
