As if to remind the public that he’s good for more than just over-the-top sex jams, R. Kelly steers in a Sam Cooke-inspired vintage soul direction on fantastic new single “When A Woman Loves”, a classy, “grown folks R&B” ballad that finds him showering praise on his woman’s undying devotion towards him, even after all those times he’s been a pure knucklehead and failed her.
With the backing arrangement taking on the dramatic orchestral flair of his parents’ favorite slow-paced two-steppers, Kellz digs deep into the supper club soul-man persona, paying tribute to her allegiance with an award-baiting vocal performance filled with hand-wringing intensity and sincere passion.
Yeah, lines like “She’s got more, more faith in me than a beach got sand”, his repeated bellows of being “forever indebted” and a slight chintzy feel to the production come close to edging the song into hokey territory, but the track is moving nonetheless, easily one of the best Pied Piper creations in years.
From his forthcoming thirteenth (!!) album, Love Letter.
Yes, co-signing with what everybody else with Internet access this past week has already screamed at you probably a million times over now: Cee-Lo‘s “Fuck You” is brilliant/ genius/ amazing/ the true song of the summer we’ve been waiting for/ one of the greatest records of not only this year, but, perhaps, all time.
An expletive-laced diss at an ex-flame/ gold-digger and her big ballin’ new man packaged as a cheery ’60′s Motown-pop romp and delivered through Cee-Lo’s heaven-sent soulful belts? With all of these elements involved, of course “Fuck You” was going to stir some deafening Web buzz; but for us what makes the song’s near-instantaneous universal embracing even more special is that, just like with the similar viral explosion response to that early leak of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”waaaay back in 2005, it re-positions Cee-Lo as the hottest pop and soul star in all of music land, an awesome reality to digest when you look at the comparably insignificant assembly-line bots most of the major labels are desperately pushing to have in those roles these days.
Fingers are crossed that when “Fuck You”‘s parent album, the Cee-Lo solo outing The Lady Killer, drops on December 7th, it’ll feature more of these modern classics to keep him perched atop that throne where he rightfully belongs.
Cop the single over at Cee’s website, then after the clip, snatch up Emynd‘s killer B-more club remix as well as an old Cee-Lo-featured fave.
On The Drums‘ gorgeous (and potential modern classic) “Down By The Water”, one of two songs to hold residency on both the band’s fantastic 2009 EP Summertime! and their even more fantastic 2010 self-titled full length, the Brooklyn four-piece, for once, avoid trying to hide their emotions behind a veneer of perky, surf-pop.
The song, with it’s spacious, doo-wop prom ballad sway, still keeps them on the sand circa 1960′s, but here, the sun has long since left and most of the beach party have vacated the scene, leaving only frontman Jonathan Pierce and his girl on the moon-lit oceanside to gaze longingly into each other’s eyes as he professes his eternal devotion to her. “If they stop loving you/ I won’t stop loving you/ If they stop needing you/ I’ll still need you, my dear,” he promises in a piercing, edge-of-range wail, as if he’s straining for the entire world to hear his words.
Sure, the “forever” he vows could very well end in a week’s time, but as an earnest moment captured in time (and future “cell phones in the air” standard), “Down By The Water”‘s retro-pop-infused romanticism resonates beautifully.
What if, after the breakout success of The Slim Shady LP, Eminem completely switched gears on the follow-up and released a soul record that was bathed in the glorious sounds of heyday Motown (or Amy Winehouse-as-produced-by-Mark Ronson), and heavily downplayed his rapping skills for some surprisingly sturdy Smokey-smoove singing chops? Sounds insane, right?
Well it just so happens to describe the heretofore career path of British rapper Plan B, who snatched up both critical acclaim and controversy with his 2006 debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words‘s uncomfortably raw and violence-obsessed “Straight Outta East London” tales, only to return four years later with a sophomore project (The Defamation of Strickland Banks) that re-paints him as a retro soul crooner.
It’s a ballsy transformation that works far better than one might think, with B’s rich singing voice (a talent only hinted at in his previous rap-based works) and the disc’s finely-tuned exercises in the honey-and-velvet-toned arrangements of soul’s yesteryear completely negating the fact that this “let’s recreate the vibe of our parents’ old vinyl collection” shtick has been a bit over-played in recent years. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Banks‘ central concept (following B’s titular character from the celebratory highs of the stage spotlight to the spirit-shattering lows of a years-long prison bid after being falsely accused of rape by a groupie), while cliched at points, would make for a nice lil’ big screen musical.
On stand-out cut (and third single) “Prayin’”, Plan B is found broken down to his knees feverishly praying for aid from a Higher Power after being involved in a prison brawl that ends with someone’s death. And while he didn’t necessarily commit the murder himself (it was a “lifer”, with “the devil in his eyes, but God is in heart”, stepping to his rescue), this fact doesn’t at all lessen the guilt that now clouds him.
A depressing tune yeah, but having his inner despair pleads caged inside a foggy billow of distant choir wails and a ringing Holland-Dozier-Holland-esque throb neatly steers it away from being a complete downer.
2010 Band You Need To Know and Love Quadron keep the sublime, blue-eyed soul preciousness coming with “Slippin’”, the much-praised highlight from the Danish duo’s self-titled debut that’s finally been given the official video treatment.
On par with its winning preceding single “Pressure”, “Slippin’” offers another tranquil ride back in time to the coy, hand clap-laden charms of 60′s girl group soul, with singer Coco’s cutie-pie coos oozing tender ache all throughout Robin Hannibal’s finely-oiled “tribute to Motown” production.
The musical equivalent to finally achieving that cool glass of water after baking alive under the hot summer sun for hours.
Sheryl Crow and Justin Timberlake semi-duetting?…On a cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s sexy 1988 smash “Sign Your Name”?…That’s done in the style of ’70′s-era Al Green? No doubt we’re sold, if only because the younger generation deserve to know about the artist formerly known as D’Arby (now Sananda Maitreya), a late-80′s breakout superstar who at one-time was showered with straight-faced praise of being the “new Prince” and “next Michael Jackson”.
Beyond that though, this tune (found on Crow’s new album, the vintage soul-themed 100 Miles from Memphis) is a sheer delight from start to finish, with Sheryl and a background vox-supporting Timberlake proving to be a far better-than-imagined white soul team-up, and its production work handling a spot-on re-creation of the lush Memphis R&B magic Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell reigned with throughout the 1970′s.
Wouldn’t mind if Justin opted to wrap his trademark falsetto on this old-school sound as well for his next project (Hint, hint).
100 Miles from Memphis, also featuring a cover of The Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back”, drops July 20th.
On “You Don’t Shock Me Anymore”, Cee-Lo is captured expressing his disappointment toward today’s music scene (“I believed in magic once upon a time/ When something had to be special/ Couldn’t see it online”; “Now all the rock stars are regular people”; “The glory days are gone/ I can’t hear my heartbeat with the radio on”) and while digesting his words, it’s easy to take on a similar sunken feeling in the pit of one’s stomach.
Not necessarily because you agree with the details of Cee-Lo’s bemoans (which we do), but because “Anymore” seems to hint that by not being so inspired by his contemporaries and the current ways of the industry and public music consumption, Cee is pondering an early retirement (in the words of KC & The Sunshine Band, and later…err, Double You and KWS, “Please don’t go” Cee-Lo).
Thankfully the track, one of many highlights from the all new cuts-pimping Stray Bullets mixtape Cee quietly released last month (pick it up via OnSmash), isn’t entirely depression-inducing, thanks to a 70′s supper-club soul/ classic TV theme song breeziness that compliments his soulful pipes perfectly.
Grab the cut below, then check out the (NSFW) video to the first single from Cee-Lo’s next (and hopefully not final) album Cee Lo Green is The Lady Killer, a cover of Band of Horses’ 2007 Cease To Beginsingle “No One’s Gonna Love You”.
Built off a merged inspiration of yester-year pop icons Brian Wilson, Sergio Mendes and Phil Spector, with bits of Broadway and bossa nova influence thrown in the mix, “Summer”, a breathtakingly gorgeous new cut by Memphis indie pop outfit Magic Kids, sublimely nails the mood of a lazy summer afternoon in it’s lush orchestral-pop sway, the added touch of frontman Bennett Foster’s nasally croon drifting the song’s cinematic grandeur into wistful territory.
What’s got Foster so down? He’s back at home for summer break watching all his friends “disappear in the arms of college girls set free”, but he’s unable to join along in their promiscuous festivities because his heart weighs heavy for the sweetheart he left behind, and he’s highly distracted by the bubbling internal fears that their union won’t be able to survive the three months long separation.
“Now I’m scared that I’m losing/ Touch with you, is it true?”, he panics aloud, later on attempting to convince himself that maybe he should just relax and let whatever happens concerning their romance just happen: “There’s no use in fearing what tomorrow brings”. The heart-melting yearn heard in his song-ending falsetto cries of “Missin’ you”, however, succinctly expresses that he’s far from resolving his inner woes.
It’s going to be a long summer break.
Magic Kids’ Memphis drops August 24th on True Panther.
“Georgia” is the first official single from Cee-Lo’s highly anticipated forthcoming solo album The Lady Killer, and like anything the man’s golden pipes touches, it registers as yet another undeniable ray of soulful sunshine, surrounding his clouds-parting and goosebumps-creating superhuman wails with another stirring dose of densely-constructed, ’60′s-era soul symphony dramatics as he pays tribute to the state that birthed him.
“When they ask me where I’m frooooooooo-om/ I’m proud to say that I’m your sooooooooon,” he praises of Georgia, instantly making us jealous that we couldn’t of been born ATL-iens too.
It’s no question that the greatest thing to emerge from the introductory season of HBO’s mildly received, new original How To Make It In America (aside from Kid Cudi’s thespian contribution) is the show’s theme song “I Need A Dollar”.
Sounding like it was peeled directly off an old Bill Withers’ album, the haunting track, by Cali-born Stones Throw-signed vocalist Aloe Blacc, is a potent slice of gritty throwback soul that compellingly nails the frustrations of being down and out.
“I need a dollar dollar/ Dollar that’s what I need,” Blacc moans on the hook, his weathered tenor projecting nothing but sunless woe as the arrangement’s insistent horn blurts and piano key strut illustrate the caged-in suffocation he’s mired in. And little hope emerges as the track progresses, it’s depressive, spiritual-esque air growing even thicker with gloom as Blacc unsuccessfully pleas for his boss not to let him go (“But he gave me my last paycheck and he sent me on out the door”) and ends up spending the last of his dough on his “good ol’ buddies” whiskey and wine in an attempt to grasp some sort of temporary solace.
Is it a bit of a “Debbie Downer” record? Totally. But damn if it’s polished retro sound and bleak, relevant-for-today narrative (especially heart-crushing inquiries to the skies like “What in the world am I gonna to do tomorrow?”) don’t grab you smack dab in the middle of your gut, making for a handy go-to reference to quiet “fogey”-ish acquaintances who spend their days endlessly whining about how today’s music lacks the depth and soul of yesteryear.
Catch the video below, anticipate Aloe Blacc’s Good Things album sometime later this year, then take a listen to an amazing gem from the singer’s 2006 set Shine Through: a cover of John Legend’s “Ordinary People” done entirely en español (!!!) and given a light tropical spritz.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
As if to remind the public that he’s good for more than just over-the-top sex jams, R. Kelly steers in a Sam Cooke-inspired vintage soul direction on fantastic new single “When A Woman Loves”, a classy, “grown folks R&B” ballad that finds him showering praise on his woman’s undying devotion towards him, even after all those times he’s been a pure knucklehead and failed her. 
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