Artist – Album: Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’
Released: 25th
March 2011
Sounds Like: Going back
Ever wondered what it would sound like if your favourite
Motown artists (except for Boys II Men, we’ll have none of that nonsense here)
were whisked off their sparkly platform shoes and deposited into today’s music scene?
You haven’t? Oh. Well, are you wondering it now that I’ve said it? Still no?
Oh. Well. Anyway. This is what you would get. So...
Listening to the album is like listening to a Soulwax/2manydjs’
album and playing guess-where-the-multitude-of-samples-have-come-from - you can
hear a little bit Sly & the Family Stone here, a little bit of Stevie
Wonder there, a pinch of the Temptations here, a dash of Prince there. The
songs here aren’t rehashed old recordings though; they’re not samples, they’re
just excellent original tracks that happen to wear their creator’s influences
prominently on their sleeves.
It also seems clear to me that this album has legs. I’d
never listened to it before today and, to be honest, I’d never even heard of
Raphael Saadiq. But the exuberant bursts of R&B and charismatic slices of
soul quickly gripped me and I’m still finding it refreshing and new having
listened to it all day. Songs that deserve particular mention are the peppy
first three ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Go to Hell’ and
‘Radio’, the funky summer soul of ‘Just Don’t’ and atmospheric closer ‘The Answer’. Saadiq doesn’t have a great
powerful voice like Levi Roots or Stevie Wonder, and it’s not as silky smooth
as Marvin Gaye’s or Smokey Robinson’s, but it does do a decent turn at each
style, and, after such a long time, it’s just great to hear someone giving it a
go.
So, seriously, are you still not curious about what this
review and update of the old Motown sound is like? There’s just no convincing
some people...
Albumaday... rating:
8/10
1. Heart
Attack – 3:03
2. Go
to Hell – 4:20
3. Radio
– 3:22
4. Over
You – 2:31
5. Stone
Rollin’ – 3:37
6. Day
Dreams – 3:20
7. Movin’
Down the Line – 4:25
8. Just
Don’t – 5:17
9. Good
Man – 3:46
10. The
Answer – 9:30
Listen to ‘Just Don’t’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtfOQ4thwJQ
Also released on the 25th March:
1997: The Notorious B.I.G – Life After Death
|
Also released on the 25th March:
2008: Elf Power – In a Cave
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