In an English Premier League Match in 2002, Tottenham striker Les Ferdinand suffered a concussion after bumping heads with Everton’s David Unsworth. But the concussed Ferdinand refused to leave the match. "Les can't remember too much about what happened," said Tottenham coach Glenn Hoddle in a post-game interview. "He came over to the bench and said he wanted to carry on, so I told him he was Pele.” Ferdinand went on a to score a decisive goal before being substituted at half-time due to grogginess. I bring this up because something similar must have happened to Eli “Paperboy” Reed, the pompadour-sporting twenty-something white Jewish soul singer from Brookline, Massachusetts.

Presumably Reed was dropped on his head as a child and then told he was the reincarnation of Sam Cooke. How else to explain Reed’s singular ability to write, perform, and record songs so earnestly emotive and effortlessly period that one couldn’t be blamed for mistaking Reed’s major label debut, Come and Get It, for some lost Stax classic?

The record drops today. Check it out. Or better yet, see him live.