CHUCK PROPHET > Soap and Water

The kind of elasticity Chuck Prophet regularly attempts probably wouldn’t work for him if he weren’t such an incisive songwriter, or if he didn’t intuitively find his way to the visceral, left-of-center spots in a song nearly every time he gets a guitar in his hands.Label: YEP ROC
[RATING: 3]

The kind of elasticity Chuck Prophet regularly attempts probably wouldn’t work for him if he weren’t such an incisive songwriter, or if he didn’t intuitively find his way to the visceral, left-of-center spots in a song nearly every time he gets a guitar in his hands. But the fact is that he is and he does. Soap and Water continues the shape-shifting journey, rocking and rolling with jagged verve here (“Freckle Song”), propelled by sinister electronics there (“Doubter Out of Jesus”) and elsewhere easing into a slow, carnal sung-spoken swagger (“A Woman’s Voice”). On a handful of tracks, Prophet’s nonchalant, slack-jawed baritone is eerily engulfed in a chorus of children’s voices, courtesy of a church youth choir in Nashville. There really is no one good descriptor for it, but that’s not a bad thing.