Rolling R&B Thread 2007

DETROIT (Billboard) - Soul legend Al Green says it's been all love and happiness working on his next album -- a duets project produced by Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson that will feature collaborations with Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo and possibly Alicia Keys and Joss Stone.
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Green told Billboard.com that he and the Roots already have laid down 15 songs at Electric Lady Studios in New York for the tentatively titled "The Duet Album." Blue Note sources told Billboard.com that they're trying to arrange studio time for Green in August, September and October. They hope the album will be finished by November, with an early 2008 release expected.

"It's turning out to be like fresh cream, man, like fresh milk from the cow's titty, baby," Green gushed. "We wrote these songs right off the (studio) floor and cut 'em right there that same day.

"It's the Roots band playing the music, producing the music, and they let Al sing what he sings and sing with these other people," he said. "I've never heard anything quite like it, 'cause I've never had anybody produce me other than Willie Mitchell. And when you give these young kids a shot at it, it's interesting to see the art they make. It's beautiful."

Green said there's a pronounced hip-hop flavor to the music, but it will contain no rapping. "That's all you need. Don't mess with it, baby," he said.

The album might be something of a departure for Green, but he'll make his familiar sweet soul music this summer as part of the B.B. King Blues Festival 2007, which also features Etta James. Green said the thrill is most definitely not gone in being on the road with King, who, like Green, established his career in Memphis.

"He's the real-deal godfather, if you will, the real-deal person in reference to the blues," Green said of King. "I mean, he played on Beale Street when he was young. And after all these years he's remained true to his calling and is still singing those songs people oughta love -- just like I do."

YES

MARY J and CHAKA KHAN "Disrepectful" - produced by Jiimmy Jam & Terri Lewis and sounds like RICH HARRISON. It's a total clusterfuck diva screamfest.

This will be either the best of worst song of the year.

HOLY SHIT. "Disrespectful" kicks ass! Mostly 'cause of Chaka.

WEHRE DID U FIND THIS?

Where I find the world: Youtube

(hype machine has it, too)

Oh, right.

Can't wait for this. http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=35113http://www.mywebsite.com/mylink.htmlhttp://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=35113

Some newer songs I'm loving at the mo

J. Lo - Do It Well [Yet another J.Lo single that uses a classic hip hop break, this time it's Eddie Kendricks "Keep On Truckin'", and like all of the other ones it's AWESOME. Her other single "Hold It Don't Drop It" is great as well.]

Mya - Ridin [THIS SONG IS SO GOOD]

The Dream - Shawty Is A Ten/Shawty Is Da Shit [This dude is the mastermind behind "Umbrella".. this is sort of R. Kelly/T-Pain/Akon/Sean Kingston-lite, but whatever it's way catchy]

Angie Stone & Betty Wright - Baby [SO RAW.. I think this song is about D'Angelo.]

I also really like the "Make Me Better" remix with Lil' Mo (where the hell has she been? lol). Fab & Mo make a nice team. And that new Nicole Scherzinger song.

Also, allegedly Badu's new album is called The Kamah and is coming out mid-October.

dream could stand to slow down with any solo manoeuvring just yet. 'shawty' ain't bad i suppose but it kinda pisses me off on some vague shark-jumping level? i think he also wrote the j.holiday, a factoid i'm trying to forget cos that fucking song is so irresistable, especially when you let it be its own homespun karaoke everyman listening to the radio thing. something, i dunno... protean. like, the bed as a restful thing too! i dunno.

and this is gonna sound strange but i really like the bit in the video where he's driving thru the desert and passes this giant white oil tanker. this big functional thing, going somewhere and back. making glugging noises. just like the song!! haha i think i've turned it into wichita lineman or something.

the polow mix of fantasia's 'when i see u' is really really good too. al was right about it being a great song in the first place, so i was thinking it a fools errand for polow to try and turn it out to the clubs - but no! polow does this brilliant rap on the intro that manages to set up this sorta weird frustration in the song, something almost voyeuristic in fantasia's girly blushing crush so's he can then make it swell with looming pash vibes, until it breaks with this glorious cresting release for the bridge. "that's why i didn't understand, i had a million dollar plan / guess all you really wanted was a man" is a fantastic line, and such a strange angle to come at this particular song with, don't you think?. proper remix.

quite soft on paula campbell's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Spucr7Ia0";>'ain't nobody stupid'</a> also

guh nobody except me obv

(aight whoever's blog this is, come out and say ¡hola!. i know you're reading.)

As much as I like T-Pain and can even occasionally make a case for Akon, the whole army of dudes who are so-so singers autotuning the hell out of their voices (Sean Kingston/J. Holiday/The Dream/Ray-L) are kinda killing R&B radio for me right now.

Paula Campbell's 2004 independent album was really big around Baltimore and a personal favorite of mine (seek out "Take You Home" and "How Does It Feel" if you can), but nothing she's released since signing to Sony has really grabbed me. It's kind of exciting recently that she's hooked up with Ne-Yo and is supposedly having Ciara direct her video, though, maybe she'll get out of label purgatory and drop an album this year.

Also excited that the Amerie album's finally getting a U.S. release. Just when I was about to get fed up and go DL a copy or hit up amazon.co.uk or something, I hear that it's coming out next week.

"As much as I like T-Pain and can even occasionally make a case for Akon, the whole army of dudes who are so-so singers autotuning the hell out of their voices (Sean Kingston/J. Holiday/The Dream/Ray-L) are kinda killing R&B radio for me right now."

I've definitely felt this for a while now. I love the songs, but the non-vocals kinda hurt me. This was exacerbated by listening to this masterful collection this morning:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Pf1%2BC4c3L._SS500_.jpg

I've also been listening to lots of Steve Arrington (aka the original Keith Sweat) and Slave stuff. Both of these guys had that same nasal-y/flat voice that Akon/T-Pain kinda remind me of, but they weren't auto-tuning (well they couldn't, but still) and it sounded so much better for it. Of course, I suspect these new guys are auto-tuning because they have to, so I don't expect them to leave it behind.

Also excited that the Amerie album's finally getting a U.S. release. Just when I was about to get fed up and go DL a copy or hit up amazon.co.uk or something, I hear that it's coming out next week.

Naturally, I just ordered a copy off import.

quite a good point there, about keith sweat etc. i have to say i don't always notice autotune on songs as much as some people seem to, unless it's a particularly egregious example like yeah, that shitty t-pain b-side calling itself ray lavender. i'd like to think autotune will always transcend its ubiquity if employed at just the right moment of painful robo-vulnerability, but maybe not anymore.

(affecting but also hilarious 2006 loser anthem classic 'lucky you' to thread obv)

that new chris brown with t-pain is a bit of a shocker too. why let yourself be all vocodered chris! is that wise! his new album's gotta be the most desperately mismanaged major label thingy in ages by the looks of it.

having said that, the tune still gets a 10/10 just for chris' lyric

AND MY ANATOMY IS BIRDLIKE

YEAH, YOU HEARD RIGHT

!!

haha yeah the 'birdlike' line really made me do a doubletake the first time I heard it. I am really taking joy in Chris Brown's flailing failure with one single and then desperation to latch onto another R&B star with another, my schadenfreude for him is like how most people feel about 50 Cent right now.

This thread! Thank you so much for "When I See You (Remix)"!!

Fantasia singing "SO SEXY BOY!" = wins the entire universe.

for me it's still "SOMETHING NOW IS TAKING OVER ME" with polow cranking the wind machine up to 10 billion, that bit is just amazing

had to listen again, it really is like an exorcism or something

re chris brown again: haha a part of me kinda suspects t-pain might be fucking with chris deliberately! i'm probably just playing dollshouse again but somewhere inbetween that v funny intro ("what them boys gon do for me?! bah!!!") and ooh, this little thing makes me think t-pain isn't above abusing his position a little now he's on top

Ha ha yes! It kinda upsets me that Fantasia hasn't had a bigger career. She really has the most ridiculously great OTT voice.

yes, i must listen to her album. today in fact.

what did u think of nicole 'whatever you like' in the end btw? the video's um... arresting (until that bit when she's eyedeep in the water and i think "ooh, like pharoahe monche!" THAT'S PROBABLY JUST ME THOUGH) but it still strikes me as a bit all bark hollow bite personally

Yeah I was a bit underwhelmed by it. Sort of a mixture of "Beep" and "Like This", except that it's not really very catchy or well-constructed like "Beep", and certainly not as astonishing as "Like This". Nicole is a bit wasted on understated-vocal tracks (whereas Kelly is perfect sounding like she's carefully measuring each phrase).

oh i'm glad ur into 'like this'! thought it was just me, and maybe al. i did indeed grow to love kelly's album.

btw what is up with that bizarrely millenial insistence on kelly having some sort of shoddy-looking LIVE WEBCAST of the party she's hosting in the 'like this' vid!! so deliciously dated.

Yeah, "Like This" is great, although the album did nothing for me in the couple of listens I got in before temporarily misplacing during a recent move. I think "Love" (the Solange co-write!) was the only other song that really grabbed me, let me know what else I should be listening for if/when I relocate the disc.

"Whatever U Like" could have legs for me but right now it's just kinda...there, and the goofy "hot as a stove" stuff would probably work better if it was someone more like, say, Fergie. She's still a really underrated vocalist and I like most of what she's been on so far, but I kinda have to wonder if there's any reason for a Scherzinger solo album right now, although maybe the rumored relationship w/ Iovine is the only reason she needs to make it happen. But seriously, I'm sure the Pussycat Dolls machine could use a new album to keep the reality show going and all (unless the 'next doll' they search for is one who can actually sing lead to replace Nicole?), and it's not like she's going to do something really stylistically different from the PCD album, or like PCD had any qualms about putting her upfront and singing I/me lyrics instead of us/we lyrics before. Still haven't got my head around "Super Villain" to say anything about it either way.

"btw what is up with that bizarrely millenial insistence on kelly having some sort of shoddy-looking LIVE WEBCAST of the party she's hosting in the 'like this' vid!! so deliciously dated."

That's very early 00s J Lo.

Can anyone else hear the Coldplay influence on "Better without You"?

K. Cole single...not bad.

She really has the most ridiculously great OTT voice.

"Like yo' name is Missy ELLIOTT! My name is FanTASIA BARRINO!"

Not many singers can pull something like this off - Fantasia's album is worth it for this alone

Has there ever been a song as good as Cassie's "Is It You"???

I agree Tim. It feels like lightning could strike twice for her, but I'm not sure she can overcome the "OMG did you see her on 106 and Park though? She can't even sing!!!" ridiculousness. I'm positive that can't keep 'em off the charts Akon and T-Pain are equally vocally horrible (if not as lifeless) live, but they've survived quite well. I fear she'll never recover from this seeming obsession with her vocal shortcomings (or maybe I just read Concrete Loop too much).

Yes, yes, yes...I'm in love with Cassie right now. She needs to stick with Ryan Leslie; they're a magical duo.

I prefer "Sometimes" to "Is it You" to be honest.

I guess I should listen to "Is It You" again, because it didn't stay with me at all the couple times I did.

BOO on Tim for using Rihanna as a go-to example for "one of the most charasmatic and accomplished modern r&b singers" on P*tchf*rk today.

I didn't write anything like that Alex. Is that in the abstract?

You know I would have said Teedra!

Yeah, that phrase is in the front page blurb, which they usually take/paraphrase from the body of the review, so I just assumed it was in there somewhere, but you're right, it isn't. My bad. Boo on whoever said it, anyway!

The more clipped disco-funk of "Take Control" might be closer to "anonymous" r&b (one could just as easily imagine it coming from Nicole Scherzinger

You do know that the original version of "Take Control" was by Tori Alamaze, right? I prefer Amerie's version, though.

Am I the only one who likes "Touch"? I keep seeing it get slagged off everywhere.

yeah, 'is it you' is great. i 4ever love the way cassie can go from supposed siren android auteur vehicle to this sweetly blank (um, blankly sweet?) teen relationship muse.

(or indeed "gloriously inconsequential" like tim said of amerie's cassiest move, that'll do too)

"he said he had fallen so in love with me / and i said ditto, ditto, ditto." is <i>still</i> the line though, the cassie urtext! oh and that delightfully whatever badgirl rock one, haha

also - ryan leslie's ridiculously sweet tooth is yet further proof of him being the patrick bateman of this rnb shit that i always knew he was. i could talk forever about him i think!

btw janelle monae (who would like to be cassie but never can be, come to think of it, kinda like a tinman who can't get rid of his heart), her thing is out now apparently. i'd say the ep format was a crafty idea but hopelessly fatal to her schtick at the end of the day.

http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumID=ALB000009731

see, there's no real reason why wizard of oz refs should be particularly teenpop 2k7ish

so haha why am i feeling the deepest of regrets now

DJ ENVY & RED CAFE is maybe the least promising set of words ones read all day but turns out i got undemanding fondness for this thing

(dj spinna i am too herby to let you go!)

Yeah "Ditto" is fabulous. The Cassie album really grew on me and I liked it a lot to begin with, it sounds like an unacknowledged classic now.

Maybe the difference between "Ditto" and "Is It You" is that I found i had to let my guard down a bit in order to appreciate the former, whereas the latter combines that totally unreflective sweetness (which is actually kind of rare in teenpop, which paradoxically tends to sound more knowing and grown-up when talking about the same thing) with this sort of all-embracing universalist feel, kind of international-language-of-pop.

Though I should note that such tunes are rarely hits, perhaps the public are somehow suspicious of this vibe? "Me & U" and "Long Way 2 Go" are such songs of their era, whereas "Is It You" kind of transcends era, which could hurt it perhaps.