The Womack Sisters cut their self-titled debut album to tape, live

The Womack Sisters have put out their self-titled debut album, and they made it the hard way on purpose. BG, Zeimani and Kucha recorded with a full live band and cut to analog tape rather than working in a session file, a choice BG framed as non-negotiable once it became clear the band was the line item everyone wanted removed. The album will not work without live musicians, she said, and Kucha put it more simply: there has to be vibration in the music.

The family behind the record is one of the deepest in American soul. Their parents are Cecil and Linda Womack of Womack & Womack, their uncle was Bobby Womack, and their grandfather was Sam Cooke, shot and killed in 1964 at the height of his fame. Zeimani counts five generations of gospel singers in the line, and said gospel is the backdrop to everything the three of them do.

They spoke about Cooke's death with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe in terms of what it cost two families at once. Kucha said the Womack brothers were young and had lost their mentor, that both sides were hurting, and that it was a loss for all of America. She also framed it against the era: a lot of people died that year, and change does not come without sacrifice.

The songs run through ordinary difficulty rather than legacy. Chauffeur came out of BG driving rideshare to keep the music going, with Zeimani arguing that a side hustle is what lets an artist stay in control of how they look and sound. I Just Don't Want You (To Say Goodbye) is aimed at anyone who has stayed too long in a relationship and ignored the flags, a song Kucha called tender.

All Around handles grief directly. Kucha described it as channelling loss and the way a person who has died stays present in your head when you need them, along with the anger and loss of control that comes with not being ready to let someone go. The vocal on it is the kind of thing they grew up hearing in church.

Asked about the current revival of the 1960s soul sound in pop, Zeimani declined the framing. This is original, she said, and where music started, before it got processed, commercialised and repackaged. BG added that in their household the sound never changed, because it was the one the family had been sharing with people all along.

The album closes on My Sisters And Me, which BG described as a reminder of a bond that has held through things the three of them will probably never discuss in public. The Womack Sisters are touring the United States now, and the record joins the year's other rnb-soul debuts on the release calendar, alongside albums like Ravyn Lenae's Blue Island.