“On Memphis, Boz Scaggs pays tribute to the city’s magnificent soul tradition, Al Green, and producer Willie Mitchell and his Royal Recordings studio, whose location and personnel were used to cut it in three days… This set is a stunner. Scaggs is in full possession of that iconic voice; he delivers songs with an endemic [...]
Category Archive for 'Soul'
“The Heavy’s third studio album, 2012′s The Glorious Dead is a bombastic acid rock, funk, and blues-soaked album that sounds like the illegitimate offspring of the Black Keys and Gnarls Barkley… The Heavy delve into various punk, dance, and blues-influenced sounds including the manic garage rock meets mariachi band anthem ‘Just My Luck’ and ‘What [...]
“My True Story is a smooth, mostly laid-back, and soulful recording by Neville. He provides a healthy — sometimes overly — reverential respect for the original material. Coupled with his vocals, these restrained yet imaginative arrangements offer some surprising twists and turns.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Country Funk: 1969-1975 brings together 16 sides from the catalogs of artists well-known and marginal, whose works all share mercurial qualities: their Southern rural roots actively engage emergent funk. …Country Funk: 1969-1975 illuminates a brief but fruitful period where genre lines blurred, and both genres benefited mightily.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Michael Kiwanuka is the promising British singer/songwriter who won the BBC Sound of 2012 poll. Home Again is his full-length debut… Home Again is a promising debut by an artist who will no doubt deliver big…” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“The Bravest Man in the Universe, an album that sounds like 2012 as much as it sounds like Womack: the rhythms belong to the modern world, the slow, shimmering grooves undeniably Womack’s, as he’s been specializing in this sound since the turn of the ’70s… He’s showing signs of age — his voice is etched [...]
Mayer Hawthorne: How Do You Do?
Posted in Soul on May 25th, 2012
“…For the purposes of his second album and debut for the major label Universal, he’s the neo-soul singer with a gifted voice who uncannily sounds like a ‘60s-era Temptation given the 2011 ability to drop an F-bomb.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
2012 Grammy Nominees
Posted in Alt Rock, Contemporary Country, Country, Dance & DJ, Folk, Indie, Rock/Pop, Soul on Mar 12th, 2012
“Highlights include British vocal powerhouse Adele (“Rolling in the Deep”), dubstep newcomer Skrillex (“Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”), bearded hard rockers Foo Fighters (“Walk”), country-pop giants Taylor Swift (“Siren”) and Lady Antebellum (“Just a Kiss”), indie folk hitmakers Bon Iver (“Holocene”) and Mumford & Sons (“The Cave”), and stadium rock veterans Coldplay (“Paradise”).” –All Music [...]
“Like The Way I See It, this is a big production. Saadiq plays the majority of the drums, guitars, and keyboards, but he is joined by dozens of string and horn players and a handful of crucial collaborators…The album does not merely transcend period-piece status. It’s the high point of Saadiq’s career.”–All Music Guide Check [...]
“Texas guitarist Gary Clark Jr. mixes up blues, jazz, soul, and rock as well as any player on the scene… Clark is the real deal.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“The Righteous Brothers will always be remembered for the masterful “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” from 1964. The desperation that builds in Bill Medley’s lead vocal (and is echoed by Bobby Hatfield’s impassioned call-and-response interjections) comes from a man who truly understands what has been lost and is facing the darkest night of his very [...]
“It’s gospel. It’s blues. It’s about love and redemption, and how each needs the other.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“With its earnest introspection and earthy textures — not to mention guest spots by Eve and Anthony Hamilton — The Light of the Sun has a distinctly early-aughties vibe, recalling an era when tempos were slower and voices less Auto-Tuney.” –Entertainment Weekly Check Our Catalog
Quincy Jones: Q: Soul Bossa Nostra
Posted in R&B, Rap/Hip Hop, Rock/Pop, Soul on Sep 12th, 2011
““Q: Soul Bossa Nostra” collects newly recorded versions of songs associated with Jones in one way or another…None of it’s unpleasant to hear, particularly when someone as dependably charismatic as Snoop Dogg shows up, as the rapper does in a typically laidback take on “Get the Funk Out of My Face.” And Jones hasn’t lost [...]
“On first spin, most listeners won’t be able to tell that gutsy soul singer Charles Bradley’s Daptone debut wasn’t recorded in the late ’60s and dusted off for release in early 2011. The music and performances are vibrant and alive with arrangements that are innovative yet informed by their roots. Retro-soul aficionados who claim they [...]
John Legend & The Roots: Wake Up!
Posted in R&B, Rap/Hip Hop, Soul on May 13th, 2011
“Bustling through funk, Philly soul and gospel, taking on songs famous (Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy”) and obscure (Mike James Kirkland’s “Hang on in There”), Legend and the Roots capture the old feeling of protest and uplift while updating the sound. They’re not imitators — they’re heirs.” –Rolling Stone Check Our Catalog
“A winningly seductive neo-soul take on Bob Marley’s “Is This Love,” released as a single last year. A sparse, lilting reading of Paul McCartney’s “My Love.” And a wild card, “Low Red Moon,” by the 1990s alternative-rock band Belly. The song’s reverberant creep does something right for Ms. Rae’s light, curling voice, which has rarely [...]
“A dense yet buoyant mixture of hip-hop beats, reggae grooves, African-pop riffs and future-soul vocals.” –Billboard Check Our Catalog
For Colored Girls: Music from and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture
Posted in R&B, Soul, Soundtracks on Mar 25th, 2011
Check Our Catalog “The soundtrack to Tyler Perry’s adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 Tony-nominated play consists of new and previously unreleased material…The disc should be considered another valued outgrowth of Shange’s work: a deeply resonating cultural touchstone.” –All Music Guide
Ne-Yo: Libra Scale
Posted in R&B, Rap/Hip Hop, Soul on Mar 25th, 2011
Check Our Catalog “Ne-Yo has crafted an epic full of party songs, beatific ballads and throbbing spy-movie club music. It’s lavish disco; the songs are cinematic in scope but have the unshakable hooks of great pop.” –Rolling Stone