Durand Jones & the Indications start their third album with a heartening ballad that just as appropriately could have been the finale. "Love Will Work It Out," a composite of Earth, Wind & Fire and classic Philly soul with a Joel Ross vibraphone solo to boot, reflects upon "folks overtaken by disease" and "modern day lynchings." The song hits like a culmination but conversely incorporates what can be heard as the main theme of Private Space: "Joy will set us free." It's almost jarring how fast the album puts it to practice by snapping into dancefloor action with the brilliant "Witchoo," an uptempo call-and-response disco-funk jam whisked by a fleet bassline from new member Mike Montgomery. That's the first of nine pleasurable and loved-up songs that take the band's sound deep into the '70s with more lush ballads and elegant-yet-tough disco grooves sprouted from deep '60s-soul soil. The contrast, interplay, and exchange of duties between the church-bred frontman Jones and falsetto foil Aaron Frazer (also the drummer, fresh off the solo flight Introducing...) are fully exposed here as the band's greatest assets. The Indications also put strings, plus sweet background vocals from the women of 79.5, to optimal use. It all coalesces with songwriting that has an imaginative edge over the Indications' more studious previous albums. Although Private Space sounds during silkier moments like it could drift into covers of specific songs by Blue Magic and Sylvia, or any number of gems either arranged by Gene Page or powered by Philadelphia International house band MFSB, it's certainly distinct for 2021. None of the Indications' contemporaries have put together a set as distinctly purpose-built and delightful as this one. ~ Andy Kellman