Category: Neo soul
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New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War album review – Erykah Badu
There’s been a lot of ballyhoo — bordering on hysteria — surrounding this album. That’s because Badu is neo-soul royalty; the kind of artist blessed with fans (or should that be subjects?) who’ll unquestioningly buy her work because, let’s face it, R&B has hit a creative brick wall, unless you count the auto-tuned warblings of […]
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Sketches Of A Man album review – Dwele
Dwele loves vowels. The neo-soulster likes nothing better than taking a vowel, any vowel, and wrestling with it. So phrases like “with you” are, in Dwele-speak, pronounced “weeeeeed yhoooooo”. Add some crisscrossing harmonies and a hip-hop beat so leisurely it would send most into REM sleep, and you have an aural hangover cure to ease […]
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…mixing album review – various artists (4hero)
The aim of this compilation is to “investigate the musical influences” of 4hero (aka Marc Mac and Dego) through an expansive selection of songs that spans J Dilla’s hip-hop breaks, the P-funk of Bootsy Collins, not to mention a smattering of retro electro and a dab of dub. For completist or new fans unfamiliar with […]
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California album review – Natalie Gardiner
In much modern music, Svengali-like producers exert an inordinate amount of control over an album’s sound. That’s not the case here. Gardiner’s voice is central to California‘s mood and feel. Come Find Me Again‘s overlapping vocals flitter deftly around a light percussive rhythm, while the cool harmonies of Fading Hours delicately ebb and flow beneath […]
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The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3 album review – Jill Scott
This album should be dire, since Scott has been preoccupied of late. While recording The Real Thing, she appeared in Tyler Perry’s comedy drama Why Did I Get Married?, before auditioning for the role of Precious Ramotswe in an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. And, if these distractions […]
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The Art Of Love & War album review – Angie Stone
Even though she came to prominence on the back of the success of neo-soul artists such as D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, Stone has never sat comfortably with those incense-burning cats. For starters, her material had far more crossover potential than the offbeat offerings of her Afrocentric peers. So it comes as no surprise that her […]
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Collaborations album review – Jill Scott
Her warm smile may adorn its cover, but don’t be misled, this isn’t a full-blown Jill Scott release. As its title suggests, it’s a collection of her collaborations with the likes of Lupe Fiasco, The Isley Brothers, Common, Will Smith, Al Jarreau and George Benson. (Inexplicably, 4hero‘s Another Day isn’t included.) But the sum of […]
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One Sweet Life album review – Brotherly
Even if you’re steeped in the hip environs of the leftfield music scene, you may not know of Robin Mullarkey and Anna Stubbs, aka Brotherly. Their anonymity will not doubt continue if, as Commercial Break’s been told, this CD remains misleadingly plonked in the R&B section of some stores. True, this is a vocal album, […]
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Play With The Changes album review – 4hero
Since 1998’s Twin Pages, Dego and Marc Mac (the producers behind 4hero) have been known for their refined blend of beats and strings, a mix that earned the pair a Mercury Prize nomination that same year. Since then, little has changed. The duo follow the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it school of music — as evident on this album’s […]