DIPLOMATS OF SOLID SOUND

What Goes Around Comes Around

[Pravda]

Iowa City’s Diplomats of Solid Sound have been plying their trade for more than a decade now, so they’ve been at it since the early days of the soul revival that currently is fully dialed up. The band’s first three records were purely instrumental; they expanded their membership and their scope in 2008 with the addition of a trio of vocalists dubbed “the Diplomettes.” Two of the three—Sarah Cram and Kat Ruestow—are back for What Goes Around, and all but one of the numbers here feature the pair, singly or in unison, stepping up and letting loose, or trading sass back and forth. They’re surrounded by a variety of soul sounds: boogaloo, syncopated funk, grooving soul-jazz, soaring Motown. The Diplomats aren’t simply looking back, though, as wrinkles like the violin that leads off “Gimme One More Chance” and the epic sound of “No Man” attest. –Stuart Munro