THE SPECIALIST

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World Spirituality Classics 2: The Time For Peace Is Now LUAKA BOP

9/10

Almighty paeans: compelling collection of underrated soul 45s

LIKE JUST about everything else in the lives of African-Americans through those turbulent times, gospel music was in a state of flux in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As Robert F Darden argues in his insightful notes for The Time For Peace Is Now – Luaka Bop’s indispensable set of undeservedly obscure and often supremely funky paeans to the Almighty and righteous pleas for unity and understanding – much of that change was a response to the more secular-minded successes of gospel royalty like the Staples family and Aretha Franklin. Sly And The Family Stone were another act that added an earthier force and fervour to the sounds, harmonies and rhythms they first learned in church. Groups like Andraé Crouch And The Disciples and Mighty Clouds Of Joy would ultimately epitomise a more modern brand of gospel when