Photo by Ray Lego
It’s been a bit since we last heard from Brookline-born ELI “PAPERBOY” REED, but the soul singer and current Brooklynite has swung back into the limelight with a firecracker of a new single, “WooHoo.”
It’s the first taste of Reed’s upcoming new LP — his fourth — due this fall on Warner Bros, the awaited follow up to 2010’s Come And Get It. The as-yet-untitled record promises to mix classic Chicago R&B with modern pop, and was produced by Reed and his bandmate, Ryan Spraker.
If this new track is any indication, it should be magnetic. The track is as fresh as it is tasty.
The song was first released as on limited-edition vinyl for Record Store Day back in April, and was premiered by Idolator last week. On Reed’s homepage, he offers a glimpse into his songwriting evolution:
“I think my style, and in particular my approach, have changed pretty dramatically over the course of the writing of this album,” he says. “But I still come back to the main elements that I believe are paramount to the creation of a good song: strong melodies, powerful turns-of-phrase, and dynamics. Earlier in my career, I used those principles mostly to create genre pieces. Even if I wasn’t basing an idea off a particular song that already existed, I was working within the preexisting framework of Rhythm and Blues.
“When Ryan and I started working on writing songs for this album, I didn’t intend to throw out the rule book, but I wanted to do my best to work without a set of parameters other than the ones I mentioned above. Songs with those hallmarks exist in all styles and genres so that was pretty freeing unto itself.”
Reed’s got a few international dates across the Atlantic this summer, then hopes to tour the new record later in the fall, around its release. No date has been set just yet.