This is a jolly favourable review I did for a website a few years back.

I think she’s ace, Alice Russell. A real talent with a tasteful ear for musical co-conspirators, she’s particularly charming live, partly because she appears like she’s really enjoying herself .

She’s more recently provided vocals on ‘Men Will Do Anything’, a tune from the unlikely-sounding occurrence that is David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s musical about Filipino shoe fetishist, Imelda Marcos, ‘Here Lies Love’.

Alice Russell – ‘Pot Of Gold’ 

Suffolk soul siren Alice Russell certainly keeps herself busy. ‘Pot Of Gold’ is her 4th and most accomplished album and aside from her work with Brighton’s funk revivalists, Quantic Soul Orchestra, she has also supplied demand for soulful vocals required by Massive Attack, Bah Samba, The Roots and on Mr. Scruff’s ‘Ninja Tuna’ album.

She possesses a powerful, expressive voice that, rather than aping vintage soul divas of the past, has its own distinct resonance. The production, courtesy of T.M. Juke, captures everything with digital clarity but still achieves that dusty valve amp earthiness.

The quality of the songs on here is consistently high and they vary in the approach used. Some are stomping funk-a-thons, others infused with lighter, jazzy afro-beat touches and there’s a fine, spookily iridescent cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’.

Her assembled band back her up ably, belting out tunes rich in scratchy funk guitar, coloured with twinkling electric piano flourishes and honking horns.

By charming audiences across the Atlantic with her live performances, her voice coming across as strongly as her infectious personality, she has already shown the qualities that should elevate her above the so-so sham-soul of Duffy, Adele and their like.

(review originally published here)