Artist Guide

West Love: 5-Star Album Review!

Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to West Love: Supplemental

Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's New Album Reviews.

April 14, 2026:

WEST LOVE: Reach: The Voice After The Storm (2026 Kelsie West) Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy West Love's new REACH: THE VOICE AFTER THE STORM album at Apple.

REACH: THE VOICE AFTER THE STORM Track List:

1. Reach
2. Keep Pushing
3. At The Altar
4. All I Need
5. Mighty Good God
6. No Negativity
7. Nobody
8. Walk With Me
9. Won
10. Been Good

Don't consider this a "Christian" only album. Approach it as if it were straddling the fence between gospel and southern soul. Ardent fans of West Love will have no problem with that. Read the comments section on the YouTube page for the title track, "Reach," first published three years ago. From Sam Cooke to Vick Allen, blues singers have by and large been gospel singers, kids who grew up singing in church. Yes, there are formulas, mannerisms, inflections, vocal and instrumental, that distinguish the religious from the secular genres, but without church music there would be no secular music. No black music, no race music, no blues, no rhythm and blues, no southern soul. And without Kelsie West, there would be no West Love.

I encountered the precursor to West Love's new album REACH: THE VOICE AFTER THE STORM a couple of years ago on YouTube as part of a newly-posted, ten-minute-long, inspirational, two-song mash-up entitled "Reach" and "Keep Pushing" and was so impressed I resolved to recommend it not only to fans but to West Love for commercial release. Then, while looking for an alternative YouTube link for publication, I discovered a "Keep Pushing" video released by one Kelsie West five years before she became famous as West Love---a self-fulfilling classic if ever there was one!

These two heart-rending ballads, "Reach" and "Keep Pushing"---the former a chilling account of a soul floundering in the depths of despair, the latter a motivational sermon any coach of a despondent collegiate team would be thrilled to deliver at halftime---constitute the first two tracks of this amazing album. As impeccably written and performed as they are, however, I would not recommend REACH to the good-times-seeking sensualists of southern soul music if another pair of monstrous singles---"Won" and "Been Good"---didn't bookend this sublime set at its close.

These are fast-tempo tunes. Clocking in at a svelte three minutes, the rhythm track-driven "Won (Again)" may take you all the way back to Ike & Tina Turner's rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". So focused is West Love on the thigh-thumping instrumental background, her vocal seems to slur throughout from "won again" to "born again," and the last three words I hear at the song's conclusion are "You are asinine." If the great (and religiously devoted) Peggy Scott-Adams were still available, she'd undoubtedly correct me on that and reveal the words' true meaning.

"(God's) Been Good," on the other hand, is arguably over-long at four and a half minutes (four might have been enough), but in all other respects it is the feature performance of the album. Couldn't be better. Bitching instrumental track. Celestial lead vocal. Wild, joyous chorus. I don't know about you, but I can dance to this. This is church taken to the club, and any southern soul-er who can't get into this is an imposter. My fantasy is to see "God's Been Good" morph into a secular club favorite, with dancers waving their hands in the air and testifying to "Jesus!"

I'm not suggesting secular fans will like everything about REACH: THE VOICE AFTER THE STORM. But what's not to like about "Mighty Good God," a retitling and repackaging of West Love's former, million-streaming single "Mighty Good Man"? Or if, like me, your favorite funky soul music of the seventies was reggae, the impressively genuine"No Negativity"? Searching for a love song that makes the competition sound smarmy? Try "Nobody". Need an incredible new tune that fits any format? Check out "Walk With Me". And there is much more. For that we have West Love, the secular flowering of Kelsie West, to thank.

Southern soul's big musical tent is always at its most vibrant when it welcomes outside influences---Dylan's long and anthemic "Like A Rolling Stone" inspiring Cooke's long and anthemic "A Change Is Gonna Come," or Belafonte's Caribbean swing gently influencing Sam's teenage-dreamy "Having A Party". No outside influence is greater---nor deserves more access---than gospel. The more you listen to this album, the more essential and gratifying as a southern soul showcase it becomes.

---Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from West Love's "Reach: The Voice After The Storm" album on YouTube.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to West Love.

Buy West Love's new REACH: THE VOICE AFTER THE STORM album at Apple.

Return to Daddy B. Nice's Full & Original Artist Guide to West Love

Go To Daddy B. Nice's full Artist Guide to West Love. Click here.

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--Daddy B. Nice