Linda Jones - Your Precious Love (1972)

You know that feeling, when you sing so hard you think you're gonna puke?  No?  Well, Linda Jones knows a thing or two about that feeling.  This record is a showcase of one of the most impressive and criminally overlooked vocalists in soul history.  Released posthumously in 1972 after her tragic death at 27 due to complications with diabetes, Your Precious Love is a dynamite album.

The music behind the voice ain't nothin' to sniff at either.  Syrupy sweet backing vocals drip soul over organs, strings, and a sharp lead guitar.  But oh, those vocals.  The songs aren't so much sung as they are attacked.  Destroyed, vandalized, and ripped to shreds.  It's incredible, and a testament to Linda Jones that songs recorded forty years ago can still have such a raw, visceral, and immediate quality.

Highlights include the title track, Not on the Outside, and Behold.  Disclaimer.  Singing along my cause you to cough up a lung.