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Sonia Dada

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Test Pattern: Some bands defy categorization on purpose; Chicago's Sonia Dada do it naturally. Their intoxicating blend of R&B, pop, and worldbeat has found them wrongfully lumped into the jam band scene, a genre that, while supportive, tends to pigeonhole artists indefinitely. Their latest, the ambitious Test Pattern, opens in a wash of tablas and "Bollywood" vocals before morphing into a sun-drenched Americana road trip led by the distinctive vocals of Sam Hogan, Michael Scott, and Paris Delane. Swirling beneath each track is a multicultural symphony, but that symphony prefers to accompany the song rather than bury it in unnecessary pomp and circumstance. — James, AllMusic.com; Available at: Amazon

Barefoot Soul: As the title of this follow-up hints, the band has further entrenched itself in R&B and gospel, stripped-down and wed to a masterful rhythmic thrust, tastefully restrained guitar licks, and the dramatic instincts of Christopher, a bluesy chanteuse with a telling sense of dramatic scale.; Available at: Amazon

Lay Down & Love It Live: Live recordings can have a way of separating the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Bands that are short on talent, chops, or substance might be able to hide behind technology when they're in the studio, but when they take it to the stage, their weaknesses become painfully obvious. But if a band is as substantial and as meaty as Sonia Dada, it doesn't need studio gloss to sound great — and make no mistake, Sonia Dada sounds great on Lay Down and Love It Live, the Chicagoans' first live album and fourth album overall. The band's vitality comes through loud and clear on this CD, which contains mostly post-Sam Hogan recordings from 1998 (including a sweaty cover of Sly Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher") but also boasts three 1996 performances that were made before the singer's departure: "Goodnight," "Never See Me Again," and "You Ain't Thinking (About Me)." — Alex Henderson, AllMusic.com; Available at: Amazon

My Secret Life: On their third album, the group starts digging deeper into their grooves, merging various strains of rock, soul, reggae with gospel and R&B for a heady blend. This introduced Shawn Christopher as a regular member of the band, replacing Sam Hogan's gruff vocals with a new, sweeter sound. Christopher is spotlighted nicely on "Don't Go (Giving Your Love Away)" and the closing track, "Paradise." While their music has always been delightfully eclectic, this is the album where they finally pull all their disparate sounds and styles together and make something entirely their own out of their mutual sources. Seldom do albums sound as celebratory as this. — Cub Koda, AllMusic.com; Available at: Amazon

A Day At The Beach: Memorable melodies abound on this 1995 release from Sonia Dada. While "The River Runs Slow" and "Wishing Tree" gently frame the bittersweet experience of love and family, "Screaming John" and "Amazing Jane" paint painfully glorious pictures of people living on the edge and on the street with poignant declarations such as "crazy is just another point of view." Tucked amidst these more heady pieces are the street corner, doo-wop story of getting clean down at "Lester's Methadone Clinic" and the romping adventures of "Anna Lee" and her man on the road and on the run. Aptly titled, A Day at the Beach is an enjoyable, easy musical journey with a band that evades labels by reveling in their amalgamation of soul, pop, rock, blues, and gospel. — Kelly McCartney, AllMusic.com; Available at: Amazon

Sonia Dada: Available at: Amazon

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