Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

love the sound, performances and production of this album but the songwriting is pretty weak, as are the lyrics. its motown lite, for duffy fans.

i forgot about bozelka, is he still on the board or is he just under some unrecognizable username now?

he actually sounds bored tbh, like it was a rote exercise in retroism, and he had to hold back while making it. not that thats a bad thing - some of his lyrics and songwriting has really gone downhill since leaving TTT (dwayne needs to come back) but saadiq sounds like he just went down this road cos there was no other option for a guy like him these days, so he took the starbucks soul route.

i like this album and the songs sounded very good live, but really the 2 at the end that kind of break out of the production aesthetic a little ("Never Give You Up" and "Sometimes," not the terrible Jay-Z remix), totally destroy the rest.

im surprised its not being promoted more. youd think theyd sell him as the 'authentic' retro soul artist.

you're thinking way too fucking hard about the motives and marketing behind this album. guy's been paying tribute to the same music for 20 years, he's just doing it a lil more overtly and slavishly now, for better or worse.

errrr that overtness/slavishness is precisely what makes it so different to anything hes done before. before it was always balanced with a bit of modernity.

"Big Easy" will likely make my top 15, but the rest is masterful cryogenics.

He's starting a tour of the states at the end of the month. recommendations from anyone whose seen him live before?

I don't tremendously care for the album, but I imagine this stuff would play v. well live.

I saw him open for John Legend a couple months ago...pretty sharp set, although it was pretty much only the new album (+ that Lucy Pearl song), done in that style with the band in retro costumes and everything. i imagine as a headliner he does a wider variety of material.

I can't wait for CJ's album whenever that comes out.

I saw him open for John Legend
― some dude, Monday, February 2, 2009 4:23 AM (1 week ago)

this is so RONG btw

watching him perform on pbs @ lol harvard - who knows who his sidekick lady is omg ws

i hounded CJ for an interview for like 2 months and kept getting the runaround...maybe i'll start bugging his sister again, i still wanna talk to dude.

There's this song on his myspace "Losing You" that just blows my mind and I can't find an mp3 of it anywhere, I've been looking for months. I read somewhere that he had an entire Marvin-esque album ready to be released but it got canned and the stuff he's doing now is more modern-sounding.

anyone see him play live? he's coming next week

GO GO GO GO GO GO

FUCKING FANTASTIC LIVE SHOW

^^^seconded

lex has he played in london and i missed out?

amazing!!

can't wait!

aw, he's playing in chicago on thursday, wish i could go

holy SHIT was that a great great show

yayyyyyyy im so happy he's coming next week.

I was going to see him live with Janelle Monae but I had a class that I couldn't afford to miss :-\

he played london in...november or december, i think? at the jazz cafe. i remember seeing him and solange at the pigalle really close to each other.

saw him last night. it was o-k. i mean, the band sound great and his backing singers, the girl esp, really put their guts into it, but those new songs are just SO inoffensive. still, was surprised hes a pretty nifty dancer when he wants to be, he sounds great live, but the show was too made up of the new album for my liking (and yes i know hes there to promote the new album but still). he did a few lucy pearl songs, and some from the previous two solo albums, but waited til the encore to do TTT songs, which made my night, even tho he only really did like one verse/chorus/bridge/chorus for most of them. but there were so many songs he left out that i wish he had done instead of stretching out the newer ones unnecessarily. the band just seemed to be chugging away half the time in classic 60s motown revue style but without any real climax or anything. i know he really wants to get that winehouse/duffy/ronson money but i hope he puts his limp retro exercises away for the next album.

Almost everyone I know who's seen him on this tour reports a different set list (not song-for-song, just different emphases each time), which is something I like.

I still play the album a lot--the songs are great.

i think i prefer the "gospeldelica" of Instant Vintage--btw, Rev, you need to hear this...NOW!--these days, tbh. this is still a terrific album, tho. afrofutureism vs. retro-soul?

instant vintage wasnt futuristic.

if thats what you were implying.

kinda, yeah. retro-futuristic?

dunno. what makes it futuristic? i think ppl overuse that term wrt black music. it was just a good R&B/neo soul album. quite of its time when it came out imho.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/24/raphael-saadiq-interview

"I feel like a lot of white bands do it all the time," he says. "I didn't want to see another white-boy band come out and do a Motown sound, while all the black dudes are singin' with that thing (autotune) on their voices, rappin' and doin' all kindsa tap dancin'. I was like, 'No! I'm not gonna let the Killers come out and be in some suits an' some ties, and somebody else comes out doin' the Beatles, when I eat and sleep that!' Not to take anything from them - I love it when bands like the Killers or the Kings of Leon go back and pull somethin' from the past and make it theirs, I think that's the best thing. But I don't see too many urban groups doin' it."

says it all right fucking there

why cant the-dream be more like kings of leon?

;_;

Raphael Saadiq led a band reminiscent of Motown soul — and for an unexpected bit of Detroit, also belted a protopunk song from Iggy Pop and the Stooges, “Search and Destroy.”

A review of Saadiq at Bonnaroo

ha! he rules.

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

^ that is pretty great.

his daytrotter session is outstanding:
http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/raphael-saadiq-concert/20030483-3737977.html

Instant Vintage is a fucking classic. I don't like dude's recent stuff.

"Still Ray" is one the most blissful songs there is imo

^^I have recently come to adore this trak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz85nVYfiU

YES YES YES YES

<3<3

i'm coming home to you
wear something seethrough

so iiii can seeee your heeaaart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXHs0t5VQM4

Just gonna call a spade a spade here. Terrible song, terrible video, and Raphael Saadiq sounding like the Strokes in 2011 is NAGL as it comes.

Would rather listen to the Fat/Beach Boys' "Wipeout."

otm!

Awesome album. The bass playing throughout is quite something. Looking forward to spending more time with it.

the production on 'so ready' is elite

Saadiq is one of the quiet minor geniuses of modern music of the last 25 years (TTT, D'Angelo, Solange).

had a beer and a couple vape hits at lunch, this album is fucking me up so much! god damn he killed it

Truly looking forward to listening. "Instant Vintage" is a peerless classic for me.

wow @ "Kings Fall". Incredible performance and production

yeah, i've been listening to this all weekend; time for a dedicated thread
Raphael Saadiq - Jimmy Lee- "He Was My Mama's Son"