Category: "retro-soul"
TEARS ON YOUR PILLOW
Don't say I'm not romantic or anything but as we're about to get buried underneath an avalanche of saccharin lovey-dovey-ness because of Valentine's Day, I thought it was fair to point out that, really, the best love songs are about falling out of love, not into it. New love is great and blah blah blah but nothing says passion and desperation like heartache does. That's why, for V-Day, I threw together a special Tears On My Pillow set of songs for those who know that no love is so sweet as that which you no longer have.
William Bell: I Forgot To Be Your Lover
From Bound to Happen (Stax, 1968).
I don't know if you can properly call this single "unsung" considering that it appeared on two different William Bell albums and was covered by Jaheim a few years back but to me, it's always a bit of a sleeper song, certainly nowhere near as well-known as Bell's early hit, "You Don't Miss Your Water." Regardless, it has one of the most memorable opening guitar lines I've ever heard, ringing with a melancholy that suffuses the entire song as Bell bemoans his lack of attention and affection.
Darondo: Didn't I
From Let My People Go (Ubiquity, 2006)
An erstwhile singer turned pimp turned talk show host, the Bay Area's Darondo was an enigma until recently, when aficionados of his early '70s sweet soul and funk singles rediscovered him living in Sacramento and helped to resurrect his career. "Didn't I" is the crown jewel of the handful of singles he recorded back in the day, a super-stripped down yet incredibly powerful ballad of wistfulness with just a hint of desperation. Makes you wonder how anyone could have left someone who could sing with that kind of intimacy and intensity.
Lezli Valentine: Love on a Two Way Street
From 7" single (All Platinum, 1968).
Long before Sylvia Robinson put together "Rapper's Delight" in the late 1970s, she was a successful singer and songwriter in the '60s, creating a massive R&B empire in New Jersey. She helped pen "Love on a Two Way Street," a memorable ballad which makes good use of its transportation metaphors (how often does one get to say that?). It was a decent hit for the Moments but originally recorded by Lezli Valentine, a little-known singer signed to Robinson's All Platinum imprint. The two versions are very similar, musically, but while the Moments' falsetto approach works well enough, it's different hearing an actual woman's voice tackle it, especially one as rich and nuanced as Valentine's.
Binky Griptite: You're Gonna Cry
From 7" single (Daptone, 2008)
Just to show you that soul artists today can still knock out a good tearjerker in the tradition of the classic R&B troubadours, the Dap-Kings' guitarist, announcer and emerging vocalist Binky Griptite turns in a beautiful, slow burner of a break-up tune. Make sure to listen to the end as Griptite delivers a coup de grace of a line. Brrrr...it's chilly!
The Kaldirons: To Love Someone (That Don't Love You)
From Twinight's Lunar Rotation (Numero Group, 2007)
One of the rarest singles ever released on Chicago's incredible R&B label Twinight, "To Love Someone" is one of those songs that deserved to have gotten much more shine that it did in its day. It's a masterful, midtempo arrangement of strings and hints of piano, meshing perfectly with the soaring, falsetto voices of the Kaldirons who lament the impossibility of unrequited love. I have to admit - the song feels surprisingly uplifting despite its dour subject matter and it's one of the few "love lost" songs that I can honestly describe as "feel good."
Nancy Holloway: Hurts So Bad
From Hello Dolly (Concert Hall, 1967)
To close out, I went with the hammer blow that French singer Nancy Holloway delivers on her cover of Little Anthony and the Imperials' 1965 hit, "Hurts So Bad." Producer Daniel Janin gives the tune a slight funk makeover with those dramatic basslines and brass section but it's Holloway who is the undeniable force of nature here, pouring what feels like a lifetime of desperation into a little less than four minutes.
RIDING OUT OF 2008
Since I spend so much time buried in older music, my end-of-the-year lists can never properly be based around just new tunes. Especially in 2008, I'm certain I spent considerably more time listening to music from 30-40 years ago than I did new material and so my list of favorites would feel artificial without including old and new together. With that, onto my picks of the year.
NEW:
Solange Knowles: I Decided
From Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams (Geffen, 2008)
When I first heard this in early summer, I kept thinking, "it's got the build-up of a Supremes song but then never delivers. The Neptunes' beat just felt weird as a result and I initially dismissed it. Yet, each time I'd hear it, I'd just want to keep listening longer, maybe subconsciously waiting for the "real" beat to drop, but whatever the case, I soon enjoyed it for what it was - infectious pop in the best tradition of Ross and her Supremes. This was, much to my surprise, my favorite pop single of the year.
Q-Tip: Getting Up
From The Renaissance (Motown, 2008)
Not that I haven't already written enough about Q-Tip this year but I'm still marveling at how good a comeback he's made. It's one thing to want to champion an artist, it's another thing when they exceed your expectations. Q-Tip's return was set off by the excellence of this first single that told you some of his ol' magic was back.
Raphael Saadiq: Seven
From The Way I See It (FYE Exclusive) (Columbia, 2008)
For all my reservations, I still think Saadiq pulled off one of the best crafted albums of the year, bringing together a masterful blend of '60s soul styles onto one album. However, my favorite song of his this year was actually a bonus cut from the "FYE exclusive" version (who the hell is FYE?): "Seven." I was told that this song is actually a veiled reference to Michael Vick (#7) and if you listen to the lyrics with that in mind, you can hear it. Even without that weird, pop culture nod though, I like how everything on this song comes together: the reverb on the melancholy guitars, the tap of the tambourine, and most of all, that synthesizer that comes in on the chorus with its buzzy texture.
Menahan Street Band: Home Again!
From Make the Road By Walking (Dunham, 2008)
Funk instrumental albums are a relatively rare breed but Brooklyn's Menahan Street Band pulled off one of the slickest albums in that vein this side of the James Brown Band circa Popcorn. Off that, I couldn't stop listening to "Home Again!" which has this beautifully laid-back feel thanks to the mellow guitar and horn section. Not sure why they put a ! on the title of such a languid composition but I'm more than happy to shout its praises.
Mayer Hawthorne and the County: Just Ain't Gonna Work Out
From 7" single (Stones Throw, 2008)
This Detroit native turned L.A. transplant takes Allen Toussaint's drums and lays it under a simple but catchy melody and then unleashes that soulful falsetto to get the groove right. Heartbreak rarely sounded so achingly sweet.
OLD:
Edwin Starr: Running Back and Forth
From War & Peace (Gordy, 1970)
My friend Hua Hsu put me up on this after I had bugged him for some music recommendations. The best known song off this album is, of course, Starr's "War," and it's easy to have lost sight of this other track compared to the sheer magnitude of "War's" success and iconic stature. But this song oozes with classic Motown production strengths of its era (RIP Norman Whitfield!), especially in its brass and the driving push of the sound bed. Seriously, try to piece apart all the little bits of the music; it is dense yet comes off sounding clean and simple. In contrast to Starr's forceful polemicizing on "War," here, he's in classic love man mode, trying to kick some game. (Bonus points for the Sam Cooke nod on the bridge).
Labi Siffre: A Little More Line
From S/T (Pye, 1970)
This British singer, songwriter and poet has a voice you can't soon forget - it's not the most powerful, nor the most dynamic - but it is so distinctive and soothing, it stays with you long after the song's end. I especially love how this song builds from an almost hymnal opening only to swell in size and sound with the string orchestration and some killer work on the drums. Siffre's entire catalog from the '70s is classic material (even if many of you probably have never heard of him). This was from his debut album and it's just as good of a place to start as any to enjoy his gifts.
Alton Ellis: What Does It Take To Win Your Love
From Sunday Coming (Coxsone, 1971)
There is something humbling discovering this song the year of Ellis' death. My awareness of him preceded his passing but I had been giving Ellis' cover of Jr. Walker's hit much spin in the first part of the year that when Ellis passed away in October, I found myself coming back to his catalog again and again. Ellis was arguably reggae's finest soul man, not just with his covers but also original compositions.
The Impressions: I'm Loving Nothing
From This Is My Country (Curtom, 1968)
In a year of Obama's ascendency, there are no doubt more apropos songs from the Impressions' catalog but the song of theirs that will haunt me is "I'm Loving Nothing." Its beauty seems almost profane given that this is all about the death of love. Not something you'd want as a first dance at your wedding but doesn't it sound like an embrace rather than slow turn away?
Bonnie and Shelia: You Keep Me Hanging On
From 7" (King, 1971). Also on New Orleans Funk Vol. 2.
King is best known as the home of James Brown for many of his pivotal funk productions of the late 60s but at least for this single, the Cincinnati-based label picked up a slice of NOLA funk thanks to this excellently produced tune from Wardell Quezerque. One of my new favorite femme funk tracks, "You Keep Me Hanging On" reminds me a lot of the snap and sass of Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff." Hang with it.
BOTH OLD AND NEW:
Alicia Keys: Teenage Love Affair
From As I Am (J Records, 2007)
I know this album came out in 2007 but, um, I just started to listening to it this past week and "Teenage Love Affair" has been on constant rotation since. Single-song-repeat rotation. Part of why I'm so taken by it is how Jack Splash juices up the loop from the Temprees and gives Keys' tune such a richness and catchy drive. The other half is how Keys handles this song with just the right blend of coquettish sexuality and chaste charm. I think I have a school boy crush on "Teenage Love Affair."
DJ Day: What's Goin' On (DJ Day Edit)
From 7" single (MPM, 2008)
This single just came out a week or so ago and it finds California's DJ Day reworking an alternative version of Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Goin' On" in a way so clean and organic that even Motown fanatics would swear it was a lost tape from Motown's vaults. I don't know why it sounds so perfect with the season but there's something warm and comforting about this that makes you want to wrap yourself in it.
MENAHAN STREET BAND: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
Menahan Street Band: Make the Road By Walking
Menahan Street Band: Home Again!
From Make the Road By Walking (Dunham, 2008)
The Menahan Street Band (MSB) comes out of the Daptone Records camp - the Band's leader, guitarist Tommy "TNT" Brenneck, is part of the Dap-Kings (of Sharon Jones/Amy Winehouse fame) and he branches off here with a remarkable instrumental soul album where Brenneck himself plays guitar, bass, drums, organ and piano while having back-up from some of the leading Brooklyn soul players such as Leon Michels (of Truth and Soul), trumpeter Dave Guy and vibraphonist Toby Pazner, among several others. (For the full line-up, see here).
"Instrumental soul" is a rather awkward label - most folks would just call it "jazz" and I'm not one to get too hung up on genre labels. At the end of the day, the music is soulful and that's all that matters. MSB does bear similarities to another underrated album in the same ilk from a few years back, the El Michels Affair's Sounding Out the City and both share a knack for patient, but intricate arrangements, strong rhythm sections and to me, the deal-sealer - excellent horn sections that fill the tracks with a sense of drama and intensity.
That's certainly the case on "Make the Road by Walking," which first came out last fall and was promptly (remarkably fast!) sampled by Jay-Z for "Roc Boys". You can hear how the power of the brass is what Jay-Z's track zeroes in on.
However, my favorite parts of the MSB album are sometimes the subtler, quieter parts - such as that guitar that begins "Home Again!" and how the bassline lines slide in as a warm, but understated complement to the brighter parts of the melody. There's a lot going on in the song and you have to marvel and how well the pieces fit together - it's sublime.
In case you're curious to hear what the MSB sound like with vocals thrown on - check out Dunham's 7" single version of "Tired of Fighting" with Charles Bradley singing over it.
By the way, it'd be wonderful for a week to go by without having to acknowledge the death - or deaths - of remarkable artists but these days, it just seems like we're losing more and more everyday. As some of you likely have heard, Levi Stubbs, lead singer for the Four Tops with his legendary baritone, passed away last week. My fellow Vibe.com blogger, Mark Anthony Neal, wrote an excellent post on Stubbs and his legacy.
I wanted to also acknowledge the passing of Dee Dee Warwick. Dee Dee was the older sister to Dionne Warwick but despite a long recording career, she never enjoyed the same successes as her younger sibling. It's a shame because Dee Dee had one of those voices that could pierce through any setting and demand attention. Here's one of my personal favorites:
Dee Dee Warwick: Foolish Fool
From Foolish Fool (Mercury, 1969). Also on Best Of.
Meanwhile, be sure to check out Soul Sides for a sneak peak at new soul cover songs by John Legend and Seal.
RAPHAEL SAADIQ: MOVING PASTWARDS
Raphael Saadiq: Sometimes
Raphael Saadiq: Oh Girl
From The Way I See It (Sony 2008)
Raphael Saadiq has enjoyed a serendipitous path through the world of soul. He first came to fame in the Bay Area family group, Tony! Toni! Toné! and while most others from that new jack era of R&B-meets-hip-hop soon faded into obscurity (En Vogue anyone?), Saadiq has thrived over the course of his 20+ year career, whether it was the Lucy Pearl project of 2000 and more recently, taking the reigns of Joss Stone's Introducing Joss Stone album from last year.
Saadiq's solo career, by comparison, has been quieter. He had Instant Vintage in 2002 and Ray Ray in 2004 but despite that, his reputation as a producer has still outdistanced his other accomplishments. With The Way I See It, Saadiq makes a provocative shift away from the neo-soul sound of his previous works - think soft, mellow arrangements with a subtle hip-hop snap - and throws a hook at the retro-soul sound of Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones. Obviously, Saadiq's not the first (see my Little Jackie post) but he's no newcomer just angling for any point of entry. I can't think of anyone with as deep a catalog as Saadiq trying out a retro-soul approach but it probably says a lot about his deep musical background that dude is pretty good with it.
That's not to say you're going to be magically transported by The Way I See It back to the heyday of the Supremes, Smokey, Otis and Aretha. But unlike the approach that Mark Ronson took with Winehouse (and subsequent producers have copied), you get the feeling that unlike younger cats who know about soul mostly though recordings, for Saadiq, this also means revisiting his own childhood and the kind of music he grew up with.
Take something like "Sometimes." The drum programming is definitely post-hip-hop but the string and piano arrangements have a deep, gospel quality that, combined with the vocals, is unmistakably a nod to the stirring soul that Sam Cooke pioneered in his tragically brief life.
Likewise, on "Oh Girl," Saadiq does a practically pitch-perfect riff on the Philly soul style of songwriters/producers Gamble and Huff that made groups like the Delfonics and Stylistics so popular in the 1970s. And his early leak, "100 Yard Dash" has that slick, slinky uptempo groove we associate the best of Motown's late '60s catalog.
What's different on Saadiq's album compared to other examples is that Saadiq goes beyond the musical arrangements and production and even finds ways to record his vocals as if they came from 40 years back. It's hard to describe - better to just listen and compare the sound of his recorded voice with, say, Akon's and it becomes pretty obvious that Saadiq purposefully opted for a more lo-fi or mono approach that recalls the oldies hits of yore.
All this good stuff aside though, sometimes the mark is so close, you have to ask if Saadiq's motive here is mimicry or if dipping to the past is meant to enrich the music of his present and that's harder to say. For one thing, Saadiq is effective as a singer but not the greatest voice you've ever heard - it's one thing to reference Cooke, it's something else to have the late singer's aural impact. The lyrics aren't as lazy as those from Al Green's recent album but I can't say I had magically memorized them either after a few lessons. That's the great thing about the best of Motown or Stax - they had great hooks that you had to try to forget. With Saadiq, there weren't many moments where I found the songs seeping into my subconsciousness even if my conscious self enjoyed the the experience.
If it sounds like I'm damning with faint praise - I'm not. I really like this album and historically, I've never been a big fan of Saadiq's songs. But I guess part of me, aware of his years of experience and expertise, wanted to see him do something more than making a really credible Smokey Robinson and the Miracles-sounding song.
LITTLE JACKIE: CONTENDERS OR PRETENDERS?
Tags: amy winehouse, little jackie
Little Jackie: "The World Should Revolve Around Me"
Little Jackie: Crying For the Queen
All from The Stoop (S-Curve, 2008)
There is something richly ironic about Little Jackie not-so-subtly slapping at troubled British singer Amy Winehouse on "Crying For the Queen."
judging from your behavior and your junkie routine
it's time for you to get clean and stop creating a scene
girl you ain't got shit on me.
It's not that Winehouse doesn't deserve the spite; god knows her tabloid exploits have all but exhausted the good will created by her Back to Black album but if Little Jackie really wanted to make a point about the new Queen of Royal Badness, perhaps they could have done so without, you know, sound like a bite of Back to Black and it's retro-soul sound.
A pairing between singer Imani Coppola and producer Adam Pallin, Little Jackie's new The Stoop shares an eerily similar aesthetic with Winehouse's Mark Ronson/Salaam Remi-produced album, both in terms of Coppola's acerbic, humorous songwriting and especially in Pallin's pastiche of 1960s soul and funk styles. The comparison between them and Winehouse/Ronson/Remi isn't merely reasonable; you'd have be deaf not to at least raise an eyebrow.
And yeah, I know - Coppola's been in the game for minute, with at least three albums to her name, so she's no upstart but she also wasn't on any kind of retro-soul tip before Little Jackie. If this new group is meant to be a reinvention, the direction it's taking certainly seems post-Winehouse.
Then again, if they're simultaneously dissing and riffing on Winehouse, at least the latter is done well. Pallin's production retains the bright shine and pop of classic Motown and Philly Int'l on songs like "Crying" and their current single/video, "The World Should Revolve Around Me. Other songs on the album range from slick, mid-tempo ballads ("28 Butts") to frenetic funk slabs ("The Kitchen") to some straight-up '60s girl group/jukebox sides ("One Love"). Coppola is pleasant though undistinguished vocally but her songwriting retains much of the bite and spark it's had for 10 years now; she's long had a tongue-in-cheek swagger that certainly predates Winehouse or any similar singer. In short, The Stoop will deservedly draw many comparisons to Back to Black but on its own merits, it has a winking charm and rollicking, savvy music that's timed well for some summer fun.
Little Jackie are also indicative of how much this season is going to be dominated by an R&B sound that sounds more 1968 than 2008 as everyone else sounds like they're surfing off of Winehouse's wake. Shall we run down the roll call thus far? Solange Knowles, Duffy, Gabrielle Cilmi, Adele and that's not even including the folks that Amy Winehouse bit off of, including Sharon Jones and Nicole Willis.
This is how pop cycles work: a big, new star is bound to lead to a wave of artists hot to replicate that formula (see how many "new Mariahs" there's been in a generation). Still there is something strange about this new crop of R&B hopefuls all turning back to classic soul like Motown, Stax, Hi, King, etc. to craft the "next big thing." For fans of that aesthetic and/or folks nonplussed by contemporary R&B's more hip-hop-flavored styles, it's a welcome alternative. However, as artists like Little Jackie wait to see with their upcoming release, is this a trend big enough for others to ride off of or is Winehouse the lone queen bee?
