Charles Bradley’s story is one to warm the cockles of any music fan’s heart.

The soul singer spent 40 years working the bar circuit as a James Brown impersonator called Black Velvet with no real return, until Daptone’s Gabriel Roth and Menahan Street Band’s Tom Brenneck took an interest in him.

His first two albums were very much about making up for lost time, with songs cloaked in urgency and heart-on-sleeve emotion, but the third sees Bradley relaxing into the material.

While Bradley’s deep, dramatic voice does much of the heavy lifting as before, there’s a looseness and a deeper groove to the classic soul shapes created by the Daptone band to drive things along.

The righteousness with which Bradley works the title track, Ain't It A Sin and Ain't Gonna Give It Up is something to savour. Bradley most definitely remains the real deal.