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Gabriels: “Love and Hate in a Different Time”

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Oct 24, 2021
Category: Soul

I didn’t watch Jimmy Kimmel in August. Or Jools Holland on the BBC in June. So it wasn’t until “Love and Hate in a Different Time” interrupted a set of yacht rock on WFUV that I was jerked to full attention, inspired to crank the volume, stand and move. If you don’t do the same, better check your pulse.

Gabriels?

It’s a Los Angeles-based trio. Really, it’s Jacob Lusk and his producers, Ari Balouzian and Ryan Hope, and session musicians. Lusk and his producers met at his church in Compton, the producers recall: “We basically ambushed him there so he had to talk to us.” He had been a back-up singer, and he was cautious about stepping out. “I grew up in a very religious home where I was not allowed to listen to the radio,” he says. “Nat ‘King’ Cole I knew of, but I didn’t know Motown music. I knew Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston because they did a little gospel, but that was all.”

This summer, Elton John heard “Love and Hate in a Different Time,” and praised it to the moon: “probably one of the most seminal records I’ve heard in the last 10 years.” The music and TV world noticed.

The music is a blend of elements you haven’t encountered: chamber pop and Motown, a trace of gospel, a hint of a marching band. The lyrics are just as original: a fire-and-brimstone sermon, racial injustice, the Rapture, the enduring power of “grace and mercy.” The combination? Yes, “seminal.”

Question: Have you ever seen a performer stare so long into a lens without blinking?

Question: Feel like spending $1.29 to buy it from Amazon?

Here’s the song, performed on the BBC:


Here’s Gabriels on Jimmy Kimmel:

And here are the lyrics:

Last few years that I have seen
Walking dead all around me
Silent fears, neatly folded dreams
Catacombs, Black Sea surrounding
Catacombs, Black Sea surrounding

Even in the valley
The rod and staff they comfort me
It’s rushing through my veins
Moving faster than a hurricane
Moving faster than a hurricane

We lost it in the fire
Love and hate in a different time
We lost it in the fire
What I did to make you mine

Rapture comes, the angels sing
Neon signs above integrity
See the judge, but where’s the Jury?
Primal screams, whisper silently
Primal screams, whisper silently

Even in the valley
Children smile through the misery
Diamond tears hide the casualties
Grace and mercy, do you follow me?
Grace and mercy, can you hear me?

We lost it in the fire
Love and hate in a different time
We lost it in the fire
What I did to make you mine

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