Eastside Radio’s Album of the Week is Good Thing by Leon Bridges on Columbia Records.

With his sophomore effort Good Thing, Bridges takes the opportunity to stretch out and take some risks, taking a leap into modern pop aesthetics while honoring a long legacy of soul and R&B. The first single from the album, “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand,” swoons with strings, twinkles with glockenspiel and finds Bridges delivering a bittersweet, passionately-sung goodbye to a lover: “Kiss me before I go, but you got to let me go.” There’s a warmth and directness about it that’s true to Bridges’ songwriting sensibility, but aesthetically it sounds like something from a less-distant era—less Sam Cooke, more Soulquarians.