The O’Jays release new single ‘I Got You’

Eddie, Walter and Eric are back with a new single, taken from their first album in nearly 15 years.

The O’Jays are back, in the recording studio at least. Eddie Levert, Walter Williams and Eric Nolan Grant are preparing to release the first non-Christmas album from The O’Jays in nearly 15 years. Titled The Last Word, the album is set to be the last the group will record together, and is slated for release in April 2019.  

Last year the group released the first single from the album, the gritty ‘Above The Law’, a scathing attack on US President Donald Trump. That song was written by co-written by fellow soul icon Betty Wright, taking aim at Trump’s behaviour as president.

Their latest single, out today, is less politically charged. It sees the group return to the musical formula that made them hit-makers in the seventies; ‘I Got You’ is moulded in the lush Philly Soul style, and finds both Eddie Levert and Walter Williams in fine voice.

The song, however, still takes aim at President Trump: the lyrics, “Even if the sky begins to fall, and even if they try to build that wall… I got your back”, hardly need explaining. But, unlike ‘Above The Law’, the group returns to a more uplifting message of positivity, reminiscent of their hits on Philadelphia International Records in the seventies and eighties.

Although it’s great to have such good new music from The O’Jays, it’s also a bittersweet reminder that their time together is almost up. Eddie and Walter are both well into their seventies, and appear to be planning their exit how they want. But they’re determined to go out on a high, and The Last Word promises to be a fitting farewell to one of the greatest groups in music history.