Pleasure Club

Imagine the Red Hot Chili Peppers reading Flannery O’Connor, and you’ve got James Hall. This is Southern Gothic music at its most extreme: torpid, overgrown, and funky. Although he occasionally loses his focus, Hall, a passionate, almost scarily intense performer, blends elements from Sly Stone, the Isley Brothers, and the Gun Club into Pleasure Club, a potent stew. B+