Tonight I’m back to Sonia Dada and the song right now is “Screaming John” from their wonderful album, A Day at the Beach. The lyrics, about loneliness and insanity, are engrossing, the rhythm is compelling, and the gospel meets pop sensibility just worms its way into your mind.

The kicker, though, is the vocal performance.

All alone in the middle of the night,
he went crazy by the candlelight.

Before his final madness came,
he had a vision of God on an elevated train,
grieving for the anguish of his lonely, lonely boy…

The voice is pure and gorgeous, but there’s this little catch in his voice at one point of the song that, inexplicably, gives it even more power and more urgency. This is one to play loud.

(Click the link to see the lyrics and hear the song.)