Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

i mean i guess i'm happy that he features my favorite trumpet player in the world for four bars, but you can barely hear it

ok maybe they're underused on that song but "Big Easy" is so so great

but anyway i hope he makes tons of $$$ on this

xp yeah, it's a good tune

the CJ Hilton guy who sings lead on the song that also has Stevie on it is a 19 year old kid from Baltimore, I've been trying to hunt him down for an interview.

seriously a fantastic record. all his stuff is amazing.

i wish i knew more of Saadiq's stuff, someone with the knowledge should do a search/destroy.

i'm no expert but i love instant vintage and some of those old toni tony tone jams

and he wrote "how does it feel" on voodoo

yeah I think I said this on a D'Angelo thread recently but I got a lot less interested in that dude when I realized my three favorite songs he's ever done (Untitled, Lady and Be Here) were all co-written by Saadiq.

In the 90s he was in a band called Tony Toni Tone. Robert Christgau is a huge fan of their 96 album, House Of Music...

House of Music [Mercury, 1996]
Launched by a hilariously gutsy Al Green hommage that knows the great man's every moue and off-beat, Raphael Saadiq and his henchmen give the r&b revival what for, constructing a generous original style from a varied history they know inside out--Tempts, Sly, Blue Magic, Kurtis Blow. And for almost every sound they provide a sharp song, which is more than Holland-Dozier-Holland and Gamble-Huff could manage when they were compelled to stick to one. Defeating second-half trail-off and a CD-age windiness the band isn't beatwise enough to beat, Saadiq's flexible, sensitive, slightly nasal tenor, spelled by the grain of D'Wayne Wiggins's workaday baritone, recasts the tradition in its image. Wasn't sampling supposed to strangle this sort of virtuosity at the root? A

yeah i know tony toni tone, the hits at least, but i mean he's had a ton of albums out w/ different projects, it'd be interesting for someone who's heard a lot of it to sort it all out.

house of music>>>>this (as far as retro soul).

tthe last 2 TTT albums are mostly brilliant

(xpost) agree. A little Motown Emulation goes a long way with me so this is my - thus far - least favorite of Saadiq's albums. And I love the cat.

This is my album of the year.

Keep meaning to check this cd out. I shoulda gone to see one of Saadiq's several recent shows at the Black Cat in DC. I saw Tony Toni Tone open for Prince a long time ago at the Capital Centre and they were great.

just bought House of Music for $1.75 at amazon. There's another one out there for $2.

digging this more than i thought i would

i bet geir would like it (since he only likes black people when they write good melodies)

does he like white people when they don't?

well, he's pretty into Blur.

pretty solid album all around. definitely captures the era nicely.....

The album is aight. "100 Yard Dash" and "Big Easy" and "Oh Girl" are jams. This kind of stuff lives and dies by the songwriting, though.

The album starts rockily, however, with "Sure Hope You Mean It", a clever rewrite of "How Sweet It Is" that suffers from a bad mix. Against Saadiq's exuberant delivery (he's a superlatively smooth vocalist), the percussion sounds slightly off-beat: The tambourine shakes before hitting on the beat, creating an audio illusion of being too fast, while the snare rolls into the verses sound too slow, like they've been manipulated from a faster performance.

^^^this is dumb

yeah i read that graph a couple times before i gave up on trying to understand it

can you imagine if every indie record with a shaky rhythm track got evaluated that way on PF?

Against Saadiq's exuberant delivery (he's a superlatively smooth vocalist), the percussion sounds slightly off-beat: The tambourine shakes before hitting on the beat, creating an audio illusion of being too fast, while the snare rolls into the verses sound too slow, like they've been manipulated from a faster performance.

This sounds awesome

I got to do some work in the old Toni!Tony!Tone!/En Vogue studio and it was awesome. love this guy, have yet to hear the album PF reviewer as usual doesn't know wtf he's talking about.

I mean lolz what does he think of all the weirdo syncopation on Voodoo fr instance

yeah, the track feels good and it's intentional. great laid-back shuffle on the drums and some nice raw tambourine.

still loving this record btw.

good convo between me, Bozelka, and Crutis about this here album (with some tangents)

kjb (11:09:58 PM): treat yourself to RAPHAEL SAADIQ!!!!
rev (11:10:41 PM): love saadiq but his new album is so worthy and boring
kjb (11:10:56 PM): worthy? what do u mean?
crut (11:10:56 PM): worthy and boring
rev (11:11:41 PM): it's a well-made but boring and formalism
rev (11:11:56 PM): haha that barely made sense at all
rev (11:12:37 PM): basically, fine craft but no excellence
crut (11:12:43 PM): yeah
kjb (11:12:50 PM): gotcha but I love the shit out of it
crut (11:12:53 PM): that's a good description
kjb (11:13:05 PM): u don't dig it either, crut?
crut (11:13:06 PM): it's not funky enough
rev (11:13:26 PM): "Still Ray" >>>>> The Way I See It
crut (11:13:59 PM): it's prob better than sharon jones
crut (11:14:05 PM): I need to listen to it again
kjb (11:14:13 PM): oh big time even though I love her...amazing live!
rev (11:14:26 PM): sharon jones: much better live than on record
rev (11:14:35 PM): actually, prob best live show I've ever seen
kjb (11:14:36 PM): it's the truth
kjb (11:14:46 PM): just brilliant
crut (11:14:47 PM): awesome
rev (11:14:49 PM): ^^^
rev (11:15:28 PM): when I saw her, she covered "There Was a Time" which is my favorite JB song
rev (11:15:32 PM): XD
kjb (11:15:50 PM): when I saw her, she was critizing Bush/Iraq and this dude came up to her (small club) and said something like "I"m an Irish-American and I fought for this country and I hate what you're saying!"
kjb (11:16:05 PM): and she just stared this fucker down and started ripping him a new one
rev (11:16:17 PM): hahaha
kjb (11:16:23 PM): and the band started to hold her back and she was "no I"m all right"
kjb (11:17:28 PM): "hey that's all well and good 4 u but I have every right to say my piece and tons of African-Americans fought for this country and got no parade, etc."
kjb (11:17:41 PM): intense shit but i loved it
rev (11:18:14 PM): v awes
kjb (11:18:28 PM): what I LOVE about The Way I See It is now short it is....it's almost scandlous.....the 2-minute songs make me guffaw at the end
kjb (11:18:38 PM): scandalous too
kjb (11:19:13 PM): one of the many things I love about it, that is
rev (11:19:42 PM): another problem is I kinda feel like he subsumed his personality to the period pieces
rev (11:20:38 PM): like, he could write better, more personal songs, but he felt it wouldn't be in line with the concept
kjb (11:21:45 PM): true but I'm a sucker for hooks and songs and I guess craft
rev (11:23:06 PM): I don't really feel like the hooks and songs are there tho
rev (11:23:23 PM): they are, but they're so perfunctory
crut (11:24:01 PM): it's not raw enuff
kjb (11:24:28 PM): well it IS a Motown (not even Stax) simulation
kjb (11:24:53 PM): what did u thnk of TTT's House of Music?
crut (11:25:38 PM): it's not catchy/hooky enough to live up to the Motown sound
rev (11:25:38 PM): the fact that it IS a Motown sim is reason #1 it has no excuse for weak tunage!
crut (11:25:44 PM): ^^^^ rev otmm
rev (11:26:04 PM): HoM: v good, but prefer Sons of Soul
rev (11:26:31 PM): "Let's Get Down" and "Thinking of You" are prob my fave TTT singles tho
kjb (11:28:04 PM): well there ya have it...as a hooks/song guy, I can't stop playing the thing
rev (11:28:44 PM): it prob has more in common with northern soul obscurities than the sound of young america
kjb (11:29:19 PM): true
kjb (11:30:15 PM): speaking of which, Bimble told em today that Joy Division stole a riff from (northern?) soul obscurity Nolan Porter!!!
kjb (11:30:19 PM): em = me
rev (11:30:58 PM): wouldn't surprise me that much

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

and i'm not knocking it for that, it's cool, but TWISI just has stronger songs.

I love love love Stone Rollin'

Over You could be my favorite song of 2011.

i was just listening to over you-- fantastic. the whole thing is great.

ok im gonna listen to this again YOU GUYS WIN

The bass line on "Good Man" is fierce.

listening alot to this album again. who can tell me about violin riffs in rnb stuff, because over you and the song that follows both have it? and it is terrific, sinuous and hypnotic.

The violin on Stone Rollin' reminds me of the violin on 'Miss You.'

anyone know what the instrument is on that keyboard part that plays against the strings on the long outro of "just don't"- likin that sound, too.

Just saw him singing about the Toyota Prius and playing guitar in a Toyota Prius commercial

new song with rob fonksta bacon on the guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRvD6fWJsJQ

album drops in august, titled jimmy lee

cant believe its been 8 years since stone rollin

Fantastic news. He takes his time, but the results are worth it.

Ooh I love this song. Not as retro as his other records.

yeah gives me hope he may scrap the throwback sounds of the last two records. Both are great and all but I'd like to hear him on a more adventurous/modern path.

Nice. Might be making things up, but it sounds like it was influenced by his work with Solange.

oh yeah def, that opening vocal melody

here's an interview from months back with some details
https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/raphael-saadiq-interview-jimmy-lee-album.html

Jimmy Lee tracklist:

01 Sinners Prayer
02 So Ready
03 This World Is Drunk
04 Something Keeps Calling
05 Kings Fall
06 I’m Feeling Love
07 My Walk
08 Belongs to God
09 Dottie’s Interlude
10 Glory to the Veins
11 Rikers Island
12 Rikers Island Redux
13 Rearview

yeah gives me hope he may scrap the throwback sounds of the last two records. Both are great and all but I'd like to hear him on a more adventurous/modern path.

― big city slam (Spottie)

i don't know, he really set the prog world on fire with all that mellotron all over "stone rollin", not sure he'd want to let that important fanbase down

stone rollin is really good i undersold it in my post. the production on it is great for sure, I'm just reading up on it now (had no idea what a mellotron was until today). i guess i'd just like the new record to groove/swing a little differently than the last two, altho i'd be perfectly happy with another record in the same vein.

He was a well-intentioned bore at Pitchfork last year, but I love Stone Rollin'.

Really excited for this! Stone Rollin' is such a brilliant record. Agree that it would be nice if he mixed things up this time round.

Interview about new album Jimmy Lee (out today):

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/raphael_saadiq_i_didnt_think_id_ever_make_a_record_like_jimmy_lee

Jeezus:

Jimmy Lee, who was only 42 when he passed away in 1998, isn't the only one of Saadiq's 13 siblings who died young or struggled with drugs. There was another brother, Desmond, who died by suicide trying to escape the clutches of his own addiction. Saadiq's brother Alvie was murdered over a drug-related dispute. One of Saadiq's sisters was a bystander in a police chase — her car was hit during the pursuit and she later died from her injuries. Saadiq learned about her death while recording the 1990 classic "It Never Rains (In Southern California)." There was yet another sister who survived her bout with drugs, but Saadiq says her life was "never quite the same" after getting sober.

Anyway, on first listen the album sounds fantastic. The rhythm section cooks -- kudos to the engineer. I'm still getting a hold of the songs.

This is pretty great.

I read the profile of him in the nytimes recently and yeah, the body count in his story is gut wrenching

Did he play all the instruments again?

this pops on a first spin.

That NY Times piece has me looking forward to this

This is a JAM:

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

dude has put out a protest album with an honest to god unadorned downtempo guitar gospel track stuck in the middle of it and it works. this album should maybe have a devoted thread if anybody feels inclined?

there is a lot here to unpack for sure

i had actually just been beating myself up as basic for thinking the most obvious comparison here is To Pimp a Butterfly when i finally got around to the uncredited Kendrick feature

that's a fair comparison

ok second time through. This is damn good!

Riker's Island tho

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"