It Must Be Love: Edsel Reissues Five From Singer-Songwriter Labi Siffre

Despite a relatively small catalogue of under ten albums in over forty years, British singer-songwriter Labi Siffre has long been recognized as one of the most original voices in pop. Artists as diverse as Rod Stewart, Madness, Joss Stone and Kenny Rogers have all recorded his songs; hip-hop performers like Kanye West and Eminem have sampled him. Edsel has recently celebrated Siffre's legacy with a program of five reissues - expanded editions of four of his studio albums plus a new edition of his most recent release, the 1998 (and as of this writing, accurately-titled) live collection The Last Songs. While he's kept a low profile of late, Siffre has participated in this campaign, providing quotes for the new liner notes contained in each volume except for The Last Songs.

Born in 1945 London to a Nigerian father and an English mother, Siffre was brought up with a Catholic background but realized by the age of seven that he identified not with Catholicism but with atheism. He also knew by the age of four that he was gay - another factor which set he felt set him apart from the London of his youth. In the liner notes, he quotes B.B. King: "I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember." But Siffre persevered in the face of intolerance and found himself captivated by the jazz records in his brother's collection by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery. As a teenager he landed a gig in the house band at jazz singer Annie Ross' London club and then formed the trio Safari, playing his own arrangements of songs by Burt Bacharach, The Beatles and the Motown hit factory. While performing in Amsterdam, he attracted the attention of BBC Radio One DJ Dave Cash and then manager Peter Gormley. Gormley, whose other clients included Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard, signed Siffre to the Festival International label which he had founded, and brokered a deal for Siffre's albums to be released in the U.K. on the venerable Pye label, home to Petula Clark and The Kinks.

His 1970 debut Labi Siffre reflected his various influences including R&B, folk, jazz, pure pop and even country. James Brown was one inspiration in terms of the social consciousness with which Siffre imbued his music: "Racism makes being black more than just the color of your skin, as homophobia makes being gay more than just your sexuality, so 'I'm black and I'm proud' was, for me, doubly life-affirming." He also took cues from Randy Newman, Laura Nyro and Harry Nilsson ("a triumvirate of great songwriters") as well as The Beatles. Nilsson's 1969 song "Maybe" (also recorded in 1970 by Barbra Streisand) was one of two covers on the album; The Bee Gees' "Words" was the other. Produced by Ian Green, Labi Siffre has been expanded with six bonus tracks: the B-sides "Why Did You Go, Why Did You Leave Me," "Last Night Tonight" and "Here We Are," and three outtakes first issued in 2006, "I Just Couldn't Live Without Her," "Maybe When We Dance" and "Ask Me to Stay."

Edsel's series continues with 1971's sophomore effort The Singer and the Song, which found Siffre sharing producing and arranging duties with Green. The album was Siffre's first to chart (No. 48 in the U.K.) as he continued to hone and refine his voice as a singer and songwriter. The opening "There's Nothing in the World Like Love," with Siffre on piano in front of a lush orchestration, was inspired by Bacharach and David; the song also was one of Siffre's first to explicitly avoid gender-specific lyrics. "Thank You Lucky Star" injected a strong dose of social consciousness into his music. The LP has been expanded with eight bonus cuts: three non-LP singles and five more songs first unearthed in 2006. Among the latter is "Fallin' for You" which shared much in common with the music of one of Siffre's songwriting heroes, Harry Nilsson.

1972's Crying, Loving, Laughing, Lying is considered by Siffre to be "the one where it all came together." He produced it himself, once again employing full orchestration, and it yielded two charting singles in the United Kingdom as well as becoming his second charting album (No. 47, one place higher than its predecessor). The title track, later recorded by Rod Stewart and Olivia Newton-John, nearly cracked the top 10 at No. 11. "It Must Be Love" fared almost as well at No. 14, but did even better when the band Madness recorded it in 1981. Madness' rendition went to the top 5 in the U.K. and the top 40 in the U.S.! Siffre also gave eloquent voice on the album to his beliefs about religion (the opening "Saved"), depression ("Cannock Chase") and of course romance ("Fool Me a Goodnight"). The six songs added to the 2006 reissue of Crying have been retained as well as non-album singles "Watch Me" and "To Find Love."

Siffre's 1973 For the Children concludes the first part of Edsel's program. The album of which the artist is most proud, Children employed a much more rock-based sound thanks to a band consisting of Olivia Newton-John collaborator John Farrar on guitar, The Shadows' Brian Bennett on drums, and Alan Tarney on bass. Orchestration wasn't completely abandoned, however; Richard Hewson provided string arrangements on selected tracks. The idea for this concept album came from "Thank You Lucky Star" from two albums earlier: "I didn't want to write only about what I and others see as the bad side of humanity. I decided to be explicit if possible rather than to generalize, and rather than merely criticize and walk away, I wanted to offer suggestions." He drew on both autobiography and the current headlines for the album's ten ambitious, contemporary songs. The album, which turned out to be Siffre's final release on Pye for decamping to EMI, has been expanded with one bonus track first issued in 2006, "So What."

Four albums followed between 1975 and 1991, but Edsel jumps ahead to Siffre's final musical release to date, 1998's The Last Songs. The album of original material was drawn from the singer-songwriter's performances at various concerts and festivals during the preceding five years. This release is a straight reissue of the original 14-track album.

All five titles in the series are housed in digipaks, boasting lavish and thick, full-color booklets containing complete lyrics. The Pye albums all feature copious liner notes based on a new interview with Labi Siffre. Phil Kinrade has remastered all five titles. You can order the Labi Siffre collection from Edsel at the links below!

Labi Siffre, Labi Siffre (Pye NSPL 28135, 1970 - reissued Edsel EDSA 5039, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)