Critical Noir: The 2008 Playlist
Marvin Sapp--"Never Would Have Made It" (from Thirsty)--with 24-hour Gospel stations populating the FM airwaves, Yolanda Adams hosting a very popular morning drive-time show for a Radio One station near you, and the Black Church's "gospel of prosperity" catching the attention of advertisers, Marvin Sapp's breakthrough hit "Never Would Have Made It" makes perfect sense. What makes the song one of the most important gospel songs of the last decade was its easy export into the world of R&B radio making it a legitimate crossover hit. Like most Gospel hits that have crossed over, Sapp takes advantage of enough ambiguity in that lyrics, that the song could be in reference to anyone and anything, including the family dog--hence the power of its message. For the record, Sapp wrote it for his late father; and yes we're all "... stronger, ...wiser, and.. better..." because of it.
Imani Uzuri -"Sun Moon Child" (from Her Holy Water: A Black Girl's Rock Opera)--first hat tip goes to Greg Tate, who in a public discussion with fellow traveler Arthur Jaffa, tossed Imani Uzuri's name out as an example of that other shit we hear in our heads, but rarely hear on the radio. Drum and Bass never sounded so revolutionary and so urgent as it does in the form of "Sun Moon Child." Major kudos to Pierre Bennu for the video treatment.
Alicia Keys--"Superwoman"--(from As I Am)--As I Am was an animal of 2007, but the hits continued for Keys well into the new year with "Teen Age Love Affair" and its shout-out to film auteur Spike Lee and "Like You'll See Me Again" figuring in the resurrection of Darnell Williams's beloved soap character "Jesse Hubbard". But for those of us for which the sudden prominence of Sasha, Malia and Michelle Obama was one of the major news stories of the year, Keys's "Superwoman" struck a memorable chord. Quite frankly it was a song that I patently dismissed upon first hearing (in deference to the Stevie Wonder title it shares), but it simply took on a new meaning heard in the backdrop of a WNBA commercial. Keys's performance of the song with Dana Owens and Kathleen Battle on the American Music Awards, was as magical as any moment, in a year that was defined by magical moments.
Kindred the Family Soul--"Love We Share" (from The Arrival)--In an alternative Soul universe, where Kindred the Family Soul are rightly one of the most relevant groups in the music industry, the first family Obama would be walking across the ballroom floor on the evening of January 20th to the sounds of Kindred's "Love We Share." Instead, texting my boo of more than 20 years every time I hear the song will have to suffice. In a world where Black Love is so often under siege--deemed dysfuctional, impoverished, backward and even criminal in some "places and spaces"--Kindred the Family Soul have, without enough fanfare, held up the blood-stained banner.
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Labelle--"Ms Otis Regrets" (from Back to Now)--Back to Now, the long-awaited reunion of Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, Patti Labelle did not disappoint, highlighting the trio's cultural relevancy, Hendryx's singular songwriting and the womanist harmonies that have inspired a generation. That they recover "Cole Porter's "Ms. Otis Regrets," a rather troubling tale about Victorian-era gender codes and the violence that erupts when those codes are transgressed is not surprising; More so, LaBelle's performance of "Ms. Otis Regrets" is timely, given the seeming rising incidence of domestic violence and murder directly related to women , whose only "crimes," are to pursue the desires of the flesh--desires that patriarchy largely deems the province and right of men.
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Erykah Badu--"Telephone" (from New Amerykah, Part One)--Ms. Badu has long established that she was doing this thing on her terms, regardless of a fickle critical establishment and even fickler urban taste-makers. With the exception of the lead single, "Honey," Ms Badu made no concessions on her so-called comeback and even "Honey," with 9th Wonder's signature sound in tow, cut some new territory for contemporary R&B. "Telephone," Ms. Badu's plaintive tribute to the late J-Dilla, was as much a memorial for the final passing of the magical era that produced Ms. Badu's Mama's Gun, D'Angelo's Voodoo, Mos Def's Black On Both Sides, The Roots' Things Fall Apart, and Common's Like Water for Chocolate.
***
Lil' Wayne featuring Robin Thicke--"Tie My Hands" (from Tha Carter III)--The year came to a close with another reminder of the insanity that was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At this point white militia using hurricane survivors for target practice is not any more surprising than the failure of the government to provide adequate first response to its own citizens. And even as the continuing tragedy that is the gulf coast took a back seat to history this year, the political will of the folk who survived Katrina continues to demand our attentions, be it in the form of the film Trouble the Water or Lil' Wayne's "Tie My Hands". Say what you want about Mr. Carter, but "Tie My Hands' says more about the humanity of Katrina survivors and Mr. Wayne himself than millions of pages of good-willed commentary will ever capture.
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Jasmine Sullivan--"In Love With Another Man" (from Fearless)--even when she was breaking homeboy's car window, there was something innocent and refreshing about Jasmine Sullivan. In part, Sullivan sounds like she was having fun making Fearless and never took herself too seriously as the new, next girl diva. What Sullivan did take seriously was the music, as finely crafted, as one is likely to her by someone her age, whether it's co-writing "I'm His Only Woman" with Jack Splash and Missy Elliott or her own "I'm In Love with Another Man," which sounds like it has been sitting in a can at Atlantic Records for 35-years.
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Lizz Wright--"Thank You" (from The Orchard)--Lizz Wright has crafted three distinct, idiosyncratic releases, the hallmark of each being well-chosen and audaciously original song covers, including music from The Wiz, Chocolate Genius (Marc Anthony Thompson), Neil Young and Mongo Santamaria. On her new disc, Wright plucks them like cherries giving new voice to the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ike & Tina Turner, Patsy Cline and most fantastically Led Zeppelin, whose "Thank You" is simply exhilarating in Wright's hand.
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Jose James--"Spirits Up Above" (from The Dreamer)--With his own disc and a stellar appearance on Jazzanova's Of All the Things, Jose James represented well a tradition that includes figures like the late legends Jon Lucien and Joe Williams, as well as contemporaries like Dwight Trible and Kevin Mahogany. Make no mistake, Jose James is a jazz singer, even when covering hip-hop classics like Freestyle Fellowship's "Park Bench People." And while we're on the subject of covers, James does more than justice to Rashann Roland Kirk's" Spirits Up Above."
***
Solange--"I Decided" (from Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams)--in a world where Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones have defined the so-called retro Soul sound, Solange Knowles is always gonna be treated as an afterthought--and it don't help if your big sister is pop music's Ms. She of the moment. That said, "I Decided" captures so much of that little talked about black pop sound of the 1960s--the stuff that didn't quite fall into the camps of Stax, Atlantic, Chess or even Motown, despite the obvious references. More so "I Decided" recalls music by the likes of The Shirelles, 1960s era Little Anthony and the Imperials and especially vocalists like Barbara Mason, Barbara Lewis and Maxine Brown, who are not often enough recalled, because they were in some ways, simply pure black pop.
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Kenny Lattimore--"Everybody Here Wants You" (from Timeless)--Kenny Lattimore takes his lumps for seemingly being gun shy towards singing his own original tunes. Songwriting was among his strengths when he broke through in the mid-1990s, so it's a misfortune that he's in remake mode. But more to the point, Lattimore is a song stylist, in the mode of folk like Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mathis and even the late Lou Rawls and Timeless gives us the best inkling as to why that's not such a bad idea. The choices here are exquisite, finding obscure classics from Al Green and Otis Redding and a fine treasure from the late Jeff Buckley, whose "Everybody Here Wants You" is simply a keeper.
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Alison Crockett--"Anything" (from Bare)--Alison Crockett appears "bare" on the cover of her new recording covered only by a blanket. Here the 30-something songstress is not quite making a play for the Betty Davis-sex-diva hall-of-fame (though lawd knows she could), but perhaps making a claim on something else. In an era when so much that passes for commercial R&B or Pop-Soul is embellished with so many layers fluff ("is Amy Winehouse high again or what? Is Rhinana really seeing Chris Brown, or what?), that have very little to do with the music, Bare lives up to its meanings; a stark, unadorned confessional. Among a group of truly solid songs, "Anything" stands out for, among many things, its brilliant simplicity.
***
Raphael Saadiq featuring Stevie Wonder and C.J.--"Never Give You Up" (from The Way I See It)--Saadiq, who has clearly chosen the lesser traveled path throughout his career, managed to craft a full length project that celebrated just that--the craft of making a cohesive music statement. That The Way I See It feels like it came off an underground Brill Building assembly line speaks more about Saadiq's respect for the tradition than some shameless ploy to cash in on the Winehouse bandwagon. "Never Gonna Give You Up" would be damn near classic, without Mr. Wonder and even without Saadiq, given the stellar debut of CJ. Criminal that The Way I See It is not generating more interests.
***
Raheem DeVaughn--"She's Not You" (from Behind the Melody)--There's an argument to be made that throughout Behind the Melody Raheem DeVaughn is betrayed by, at best, mediocre songwriting. Chalk it up to R&B's mixtape king trying to simplify for the sake of reaching a wider audience--he has clearly shown the capacity to do much more on earlier efforts. But DeVaughn's voice--including one of the finest falsettos in the business today--rescues the mundane again and again. Such is the case with "She's Not You", DeVaughn's pretty tome about infidelity's lovelessness.
Honorable Mentions
Estelle--"More Than Friends" (from Shine)
Leon Ware--"Blue Dress" (from Moon Ride)
Plantlife--"You Can Have It All" (from Time Traveller)
Noel Gourdin--"Better Man" (from After My Time)
Dwele--"A Few Reasons (Truth, part 2)" (from Sketches of a Man)
Janelle Monae--"Sincerely, Jane" (from Metropolis)
Roy Hargrove Quintet--"Strasbourg/St. Denis" (from Earfood)
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