Serendipity is key to modern-day retro soul man Greg Cartwright. Make too many plans, and nothing happens. But roll with the punches and go where the day takes you, and an album as fine and brutally honest as Shattered reveals itself. Longtime keyboardist Dave Amels rounded up his bandmates in the Brooklyn soul group The Jay Vons roughly three years ago to play on a promotional EP for Cartwright, and they’ve been playing and touring ever since as the latest incarnation of Reigning Sound. Their first album together (and Reigning Sound’s first album since 2009’s Love and Curses), Shattered was recorded at Daptone’s Brooklyn studio and features blatantly real rock ’n’ roll, where no one hides behind a wall of reverb. Amels’ keyboards are central to the sound, which moves from celebratory on “North Cackalacky Girl” and the raucous “My My” to continually somber and heartbreaking on “Falling Rain,” “If You Gotta Leave,” and “Once More,” as Cartwright comes to terms with the passing of family and friends, including musical compatriot Jay Reatard.