The 17 Best Southern Albums of 2017

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The 17 Best Southern Albums of 2017

Face Your Fear
Curtis Harding

The Michigan-born singer Curtis Harding got his start traveling with his mother Dorothy’s gospel group, eventually settling down in Atlanta and singing back-up for artists including Cee-Lo Green. But if his sophomore release, Face Your Fear, is any indication, Harding’s true calling is as a frontman. The album undeniably draws inspiration from ’70s soul, and Harding’s distinctive falsetto shines on songs like “On and On” and “Need Your Love.” Meanwhile, tracks like “Go As You Are” and “Dream Girl” integrate cosmic sounds, too, rendering the album both a nod to soul icons past and an embrace of music’s genre-blind future.

Essential Tracks: “On and On” and the mellow post-breakup jam “Ghost of You.”