Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Rendition Was In)

Covers were always a significant part of Jones' repertoire, a means of connecting her to the past and also linking the past to the present, and that gives Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In) the weight of a career retrospective. It might even reveal more about Jones than a greatest-hits collection would, emphasizing her decisions about which songs to sing and how to sing them. She had remarkable range vocally and stylistically. While her take on "What Have You Done for Me Lately" ultimately sounds uncharacteristically tentative, turning Jackson's icy staccato into a rhythmically limp hook, she had more luck with subsequent covers, navigating established soul classics and usually holding her own against the originals. She conveys a sense of staunch determination on Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me," as though she's not the one who needs saving. And she strips the breathless singing and lush production from the Marvelettes' "Here I Am Baby," replacing them with a rawer vocal and a sinewy guitar groove. It sounds like you're sitting in their practice space with them.