Victim of Love by Charles Bradley

Victim of Love, Charles Bradley's second album, came out on Daptone and Dunham Records in April 2013, a year after the documentary Soul of America premiered at South by Southwest and put a spotlight on a singer who'd spent years in obscurity. His voice is the whole story, a raw, weathered instrument that critics had already compared to Otis Redding's, and here it gets more room to roam.

The band plays it the Daptone way: horns that barrel in, backing vocals that drift, guitar chopping on the upbeat, all of it vintage soul but never musty. It isn't a museum piece, either; AllMusic's Thom Jurek heard a wider range than Daptone had put out before and rated it every bit the equal of No Time for Dreaming, and Metacritic's average landed at 81. "Strictly Reserved For You" reached the countdowns, and Changes followed.

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