Bilal - Airtight's Revenge

This album still jams

Maybe somebody can help me out with this: Bilal teased Airtight's Revenge with a single-worthy track that ultimately didn't make the album, and I don't remember what it was called or know where I can hear it again. I vaguely remember the song being in the vein of "Cake & Eat It Too," kind of heaving and beat-heavy, but that memory could be way off. I was really bummed when it wasn't on the album, then the album grew on me so much I didn't care anymore, but I'd love to hear that track again if anybody remembers it.

no idea, dude

Spent way too much time searching, but I found it. It's "Free." Definitely too beaty to have fit on the album, but not a bad song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZHIENQ698w

Nottz production is always very buoyant.

Yeah, I could go for a whole Nottz-produced soul album. Maybe not a Bilal-Nottz album, because there are probably better uses for Bilal's unique talents, but I always dig Nottz.

They had another joint on Nottz solo album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aahQwBLM2Ns

New album is streaming at NPR and sounds nothing like how I expected it to sound

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/17/172110416/first-listen-bilal-a-love-surreal?sc=tw&cc=share

this is fantastic

Only listened to it once, but my jaw has dropped so many times already. It's no easy feat making an album this soft so daring

yeah I'm just listening now and there are so many odd little earworms but still this record already feels like an old friend. Highlight so far is "slipping away", which is just wow.

http://www.thenqm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/bilal-a-love-surreal-album-coverjpg.jpg

loving this so far

this is awesome

*throwing the gauntlet down*

― The Reverend, Wednesday, November 3, 2010 10:01 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the drums on "back to love" are killing me rn

okay so i'm only into the third song but so far this record is amazing at creating a sense of extreme space even when like a million things are happening at once

which is great bc correct me if i have a wrong impression of airtight's revenge but a lot of what kept me from really getting into that record was how busy it seemed

I loved airtight's revenge but yeah I see what you're saying, this feels less... dense?

Yeah, it definitely is. There's a lot more space on this one. Totally different vibe, too. (And as good as the first half of this one is, the second half is even more striking).

also i know everybody made last year about channel orange vs. kaleidoscope dream but this record (at least so far) actually registers to me as kind of a version of channel orange i find 100 percent compelling. a similar feeling of wandering strangeness but the songs are all incredibly present oh and the PLAYING is fantastic

Unfortunately, it's not as flashy or personality-driven as Channel Orange, and between that and its leisurely pacing and NPR jazziness I'm afraid that it's not gonna get a fraction of the press it deserves. I feel like this could be the album that turns me into Lex, the true believer crying out to every critic that they need to hear an album they have no intention of ever listening to

the second half is even more striking

the glasper track is incredible! does ilx like glasper? No thread, and I can't remember seeing any chatter anywhere. Too npr-y? I loved the last one with all the neo-soul artists on it (bilal, badu, ndegeocello!)

ha xp

answers my question I guess. I'm a brit so I have only a vague sense of what npr even is, except that a lot of my favourite albums seem to turn up as "first listens" there

That Glasper album was very good, but maybe a little "safe" to garner widespread interest. Glasper's contributions here, though, are head turning. Would love to maybe see these two make a full album together some day

"back to love" is ruling my life today

channel orange invocation so very unnecessary

sorry rtc! was just a thought i had. forget i mentioned it

lol u dont have to actually apologise

it's just a smothering idea for first blushes is all

ooh i didn't know robert glasper was on this

it's just a smothering idea for first blushes is all

true

tbh i'd kinda always felt this guy flattered to deceive somewhat (not to say i ever thought he was fraudulent, just that idk he could have done more than settle for the cosily oblique) but the second half of this is sounding pretty wonderful and deeply satisfying

you could be onto something for all I know, I've always been glad to be a sucker tbh

yeah never mind whatever i said upthread about this record bc i honestly hadn't reached the second side yet

which goddamn

you could be onto something for all I know, I've always been glad to be a sucker tbh

― wins rules at negative self-demolition (wins), Monday, 18 February 2013 23:28 (Yesterday) Bookmark

winsomely put. the unspoken superficialities of bohemian appreciation is a topic of perpetual interest imo, like i know as i fall in love with this record that i'm certainly not really checking for the lyrics as a whole and indeed ever getting round to doing so would likely feel like an artificial labour; simultaneously however i wallow in the dusky signifiers of numinous soulful substance.

guess essentially it's a question of personal stock markets and why i sell on a supposedly thin and indulgent first half and buy on a supposedly rich and affecting second half; in reality i don't doubt they're cut from the same cloth

if there were an interesting comparison with channel orange it's might be one of image and presentation; how the cover art of each invite/preclude different stratas of suckerdom (a hunch can't be bovd to flesh out so good luck w/ that)

in any case, got this album helplessly on loop today

Here's my weird bias: I wish the second half came first, because it's the much more interesting sell (and I suppose because it has the killer vocal performances), even though the album is a much more logical listen as it is. I just don't want people dipping in for a few songs, assuming they've heard everything there is, then ducking out before they get to the revelations.

so far i like to hear it as two mini lps, small and perfectly formed like blacksummersnight; probably if i really studied the lyrics there'd be some greater intended arc this might disfigure but concision has its own logic (and often a better, more suggestive one at that)

doubtful in any case that anyone so minded to bother to check this album out at all is ever going to skip the second half

anyone have credits for this? who's on drums?

Yeah the drums AND the bass O__o

guessing derrick hodge on bass

this could be a banner year for, uh, neo-neo-soul. this, jose james, and i guess it's maybe even possible that there's an outside chance that d'angelo and maxwell will drop their records.

that would be an incredible year.

Yeah, that's a trend piece I would love to read

definitely feeling the slower second half more

was quite excited about this based on the hosannahs but in what way is this not bilal making the same kind of album he always makes? that's nice to listen to with a few interesting details for a week or so and then you completely forget about it. case in point, his last album seems to have disappeared from my itunes and this is the first time i've noticed. "slipping away" is pretty great i guess but he never stops my attention wandering.

the robert glasper album last year was really great, much better and more varied imo

this is based on 2 listens, i guess i'm not done with it yet but it didn't blow me away

don't recall much inhomogeneous about the glasper rec, nice enough though it was

really? quite apart from the multiplicity of voices you've got breezy summer jams, heavy-lidded bedroom soul, dr dre interpolations, nirvana through a talkbox...it's one of the most varied (broadly) neo-soul albums i can think of

i didn't realise this was out yet but it rules

There’s a new album?!

*flees to Apple Music*

Listening to Love for Sale on youtube today (after hearing his interview on Questlove's podcast), it's just so so nice to hear another record from that incredible Electric Lady era.

Oooooooh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7fhyqh0IM

ugh this is so good, finally watched it

the glasshaus album is so good. its kind of the album i wish he would make, ie a great lineup of musicians, a simple setup, unfussily but elegantly produced. i do wish it didnt have common on THREE songs - when i saw him live at the weekend, he brought common out there too (no dis to common, he brought a lot of excited-child MC energy), which was a surprise, im just unsure its one i need, lol.

the live show was interesting as ive not seen him live in years and thought it would be like the glasshaus album, but it was split loosely in half, the first half rockier (so big but controlled rocking out climaxes to songs, blues guitar soloing, just putting the guitar louder in the mix, though im not sure hes really that interesting using rock dynamics tbh), the second half was a bit subtler and more restrained, which is where i see his strengths.

i love bilal, hes one of my favourite singers, and the glasshaus album reminded me why, but his albums since the second one have all been pretty middling. i might need to persevere with the new one, it seems okay, more electronic, kinda like miguel in places, but i wish he picked/found better material. might be a tried n tested route but i hope one day he does a cassandra wilson and reworks old songs (i used to have a live version he did of my funny valentine that was sublime). he deserves better material to work with. good for him getting a grammy nomination though.