song of the day: "simple"

flawless light in a darkening air, alone and shining there. love will not elude you, love is simple...

kd lang's voice is so awfully perfect.

mtv: the music's in the margins

in recent months, mtv has been mashing commercials for its tv shows with performance commercials of non-commercial artists. the ads first caught my attention when the bands paramore and rodrigo y gabriela were in them. then a little later, rapper common showed up. more recently, it's been singer kenna and m.i.a.

perhaps this is mtv's compromise for all the people saying there's no music in music television anymore. it's more like 99.9% reality programming. why bother having the awards show anymore if videos are only shown between six and eight in the morning? the music commercials are a sad consolation prize for people still trying to hang in there with the network.

its 30-and-older counterpart, vh1, isn't any better. it shows videos during the same time period in the morning then have the gall to have a top 20 video countdown on the weekend! i caught part of it one saturday morning, and a very old song by pink (old by industry standards) was still on the countdown. who's actually voting for the videos that make the cut?

maybe mtv's just commenting on how disposable music is these days by presenting it in a disposable way. realistically, the music isn't being promoted in these commercials. maybe mtv's really just trying to get hits on its website and more business for their online music store.

song of the day: "pastime paradise"

unfortunately, coolio made some folks forget and others not even remember...

family music

when i was growing up, there were cassettes my parents and i could listen to in the car during road trips and even when we were just running in-town errands. my favorite during our drive from cincinnati to denver was chaka khan's i feel for you album. then a few years later, it was anita baker's rapture. we learned all the songs and sang along to them in unison and three-part harmony, with me squeezing in the space between the driver and front passenger seats to join the chorus. my parents even let me take my mixtapes and prince albums out of my walkman and play them in the car stereo.

with all the advances in car technology, vehicles are now four-wheel entertainment centers with dvd, mp3 and cd players giving everyone in the car the ability to have their own space even though they're heading to the same destination. it's basically taking the impersonal traveling experience of public transportation (particularly buses, planes and subways) and bringing it into your own personal mode of transportation.

this saddens me. has this personal-listening-station design of new cars brought the days of singalongs during road trips to an end? or has the content in music changed so much that it's now impossible to find a musical common ground on which parents and their children can stand? personally speaking, if i were growing up now, i'm sure my parents would still let me play my cds and mix cd's no matter what their content. they did let me play my prince stuff, after all--and that was before he washed his mouth out with soap. but there are several parents who would not do the same. they'd rather ride in silence while their children listen to their mp3 players or play video games in the backseat only to say "bye" or "have a nice time" before they get out of the car.

it's ok, sometimes

for the last couple months, i've made more itunes purchases than record store purchases. initially, i felt a little guilty about it considering my past issues with touching music. however, i'm not a complete sell-out. 99% of what i've bought from itunes are singles. only two of the last six albums i've bought--kip blackshire's self-titled debut and rahsaan patterson's after hours--came from itunes. the other four (the noisettes' what's the time mr. wolf?, prince's planet earth, chrisette michele's i am and m.i.a.'s kala) i got at best buy. i like to add my number to soundscan when (i think) it counts.

i do still have a hang-up about buying jazz albums through itunes. for those, i prefer touch-purchasing. besides, what i've seen of it so far, itunes' jazz selection (and its gospel and soul selection) sucks lemon. since the tower records jazz section is a distant memory, i'm reduced to buying most of my jazz stuff through borders. the last three i got from there were: miles davis e.s.p., carmen mcrae the great american songbook and anita o'day's finest hour. for the more obscure stuff, i'll probably have to go through amazon.com which is ok because i'll still have an actual cd with liner notes.

i do have two jazz singles in my itunes shopping cart: "la costa" by natalie cole and "agua de beber" by astrud gilberto. here's my excuse: i've been in a real mood for those two songs lately, especially cole's "la costa" which is my favorite song by her right now.

it's nice to embrace the latest technology, but i also feel it's best not to totally foresake the old way of doing things. mix it up a bit! this, coming from someone who ditched the cassette player and typewriter long ago.

three years late for "after hours"

singer rahsaan patterson didn't really interest me initially. i remember seeing the video for his song "stop by" a few times, but i thought it was pretentious. in it, he's on display in a store window as a living mannequin who's singing his heart out as people pass by staring or smiling at him or dancing with him. then at the end of the video, most of the passers by are inside the store window, partying with patterson.

i allowed that visual to keep me from exploring his music until now and i must thank pandora for that. the intricate internet radio site of music lusciousness introduced me to two songs from patterson's 2004 album, after hours, and made me a believer. they were "i always find myself" and "yeah yeah yeah." soonafter hearing those two songs, i downloaded after hours from itunes.

before after hours i only thought of patterson as a talented guy who'd written great songs for other singers like brandy ("baby") and jody watley ("lovin' you so"), but didn't keep any for himself. i stand corrected: he apparently saved them all for after he left major label mca for the independent fare at artistry music.

he has a new album called "wines & spirits" coming out next month. artistry music has a song from it and after hours on its myspace page.

lands on planet earth august 21st

saw this young lady, janelle monae, perform last night. she's a walking broadway show stuffed into a pair of saddle shoes!

hip hop is alive and kicking...outside the u.s.

"you best respect canada in this musical famine/so here's some manna you can examine..."
k-os "aquacityboy"

canadian mc/singer/musician k-os has delivered the best hip hop album you've never heard. atlantis: hymns for disco is the latest proof that american hip hop is leaving a lot to be desired. k-os and other incredible hip hop artists from outside the states like shystie, dizzee rascal and m.i.a. are light years ahead of the club-song monotony going on in the u.s. right now.

americans tend to take the art forms they invented for granted, while non-americans are hard at work studying the history of those forms, re-working old formulas and coming up with some of the most original sounds ever heard.

that's exactly what k-os does. his first two albums, exit and joyful rebellion were his search for his own planet of sounds. he appears to be the only one manning the spaceship on this voyage, with 45's, eight tracks, cassettes and cd's strewn about the cockpit. it took him two albums to build up the courage to bust through restrictive categorization and, sadly, he's one of the few musicians doing so.

exit was mostly caribbean and hip hop influenced with the beautifully haunting "superstarr pt. 2" that was perhaps a preview of the musical growth he would explore on joyful rebellion.

rebellion's "dirty water" and "man i used to be" set the standard for the musical planet that is atlantis: hymns for disco. atlantis is an overstuffed brown paper lunch bag with huge grease spots from the fried chicken, brownies and fritos inside. in an hour's time, k-os covers the forgotten roots of gospel, blues, soul, bluegrass, rockabilly, punk, pop and hip hop. it's music that will be played on the first car ride to the moon.

honorable mention

closing out this prince music month, here are four other prince '90s albums that deserve recognition:

exodus (1995) - this was actually an npg release with prince's bassist at the time, sonny thompson, doing most of the lead vocals. funkiest...album...ever! the segues aren't even annoying. many of them are quite humorous, especially "mashed potato girl" and "new power day." standout tracks: "get wild," "count the days," "the good life," "return of the bump squad," and "the exodus has begun."

girl 6 (1996) - it's the soundtrack for spike lee's movie of the same name. all the songs included on it are prince compositions, but some of them are performed by the artists he gave them to, e.g. "the screams of passion" by the family and "nasty girl" by vanity 6. " it also includes "count the days" from npg's exodus and an edited version of "she spoke 2 me" which was officially released on the vault...old friends 4 sale. the title track, "girl 6" features nona gaye. wonderful compilation of prince work.

the truth (1997) - this acoustic album was the fourth disc on crystal ball, prince's official release of several of his much-bootlegged songs. the truth was all new material. the songs are full of lyrical maturity, addressing loss of a loved one ("comeback"), his name change, loss of popularity and the public's perception of him at the time ("the truth," "don't play me," "fascination").

the vault...old friends 4 sale (1999) - another project featuring prince's much-bootlegged songs from the 1980s and songs he did with the new power generation during the 1990s that never made it on an album. it also has prince's version of "5 women," a song he gave to joe cocker. other songs like "she spoke to me" (also on girl 6), "when the lights go down" and "old friends 4 sale" shows prince's strong vocal ability and growth as a jazz musician.

newpower rave

prince's last two albums for the '90s took him out of the 20th century with a whimper. there are some great moments on both newpower soul (1998) and rave un2 the joy fantastic (1999), but neither are great albums.

newpower soul is more of a mix cd for a party, but unfortunately there are only three really good dance songs on it: "mad sex," "come on" and the hidden track, "wasted kisses." what was supposed to be the standout ballad, "the one" would've worked so much better as an instrumental, especially to better feature rhonda smith's fretless bassline and clare fischer's orchestral arrangement.

the album also feels like an advertisement for the new npg records prince was trying to launch at the time, shining a spotlight on two of his musical mentors, family stone and bass legend larry graham and la grande dame, chaka khan. however, it would've been a better vehicle in which to feature another vocalist he was working with at the time, marva king.

clive davis tried to make rave un2 the joy fantastic do for prince what supernatural did for carlos santana. distributed by arista--in its last days before davis started j records--rave was full of cameos from the hip-hop (chuck d., eve) and pop (gwen stefani, sheryl crow) worlds. but all the cameos in the world couldn't save rave from being boring. the exception is the so-called collaboration he did with sheryl crow, "baby knows." crow plays harmonica and sings background vocals on it. "baby knows" also has another awesome prince lyric: "...and her perfume, it smell like the weekend."

the best songs on rave are the ones on which prince did everything himself: "tangerine," "the greatest romance ever sold," "eye love u but eye don't trust u anymore," "man o' war" and "wherever you go, whatever u do." but that's disappointing, considering this was supposed to be an album of new material meant to relaunch prince's popularity. at the close of the 20th century, he actually ended up receiving more attention for "1999," a song he wrote in 1982.

emancipation or proclamation?

emancipation should've been one good disc with about 17 songs. instead, it was three disappointing discs with 36 tracks. it was released in 1996, just a few months after chaos and disorder which was his final album for warner bros. the album was supposed to be a celebration of prince's new life as a married man and expectant father, as well as a free man fresh off the warner bros. plantation. instead emancipation is just prince trying to prove he's happily married and overjoyed to be finished with his contractual obligations and all the music on emancipation was tied up until it found freedom on three discs. despite his intent, it ended up coming off as an ego trip on a forked road.

disc two was supposed to be the mayte/baby album, prince's expression of how in love he was with mayte and how glad he was to be having a baby with her, but it's some of the most uninspired work he's ever done. it's painful to sit through and i'm still recovering from the one time i did it. the most beautiful and most inspired song on disc two wasn't even written by prince and that's "soul sanctuary" which was penned by singer and former warner bros. labelmate, sandra st. victor. she scored a big hit "ghetto heaven" with her band, the family stand, in 1990.

another indicator of prince's lack of inspiration is in all of the mediocre remakes on emancipation. in "betcha by golly wow" he even says, "sometimes a man can't find words to express all the things he feels inside. but every just so often the words of another who's truly in love, seem to work out fine" what?! the man who wrote "private joy," "the beautiful ones" and "joy in repetition" is using someone else's words to express being in love? that's a cop-out.

then there's "eye can't make u love me," "la la la means eye love u" and "one of us" which are on disc one and three, respectively. while "eye can't make you love me" and "la la la means eye love u" are pretty forgettable, "one of us" is actually pretty good. but pretty good is just as bad as saying horrible when it comes to a musician of prince's caliber.

on the upside, emancipation has some great dance tracks like "courtin' time," "the human body," "face down," "style" and "sleep around." the mid-tempo grooves are pretty fantastic, too: "somebody's somebody," "white mansion," "damned if eye do" and "in this bed eye scream"--which shows more vulnerability and honesty in its nearly six minutes in length than the entire 60-minute disc two does, and it was inspired by ex-bandmates wendy & lisa and ex-girlfriend (and wendy's twin sister), susannah!

prince would've had a better chance of having a proclamation to make with emancipation if he would've just taken all the filler out of his speech first.

gold chaos

it took more than a year for the gold experience to come out. prince performed songs from the album's original incarnation on american t.v. while butting heads with warner bros. over its release. he premiered "interactive" (which was later released on 1997's crystal ball) and "endorphinmachine" on the vh1 honors program in 1994. he also performed "dolphin" on the late show that same year, as well as several other songs that didn't make the final cut, on soul train and the american music awards. "319" and "ripopgodazippa" (officially released on crystal ball) showed up in the showgirls movie.

"the most beautiful girl in the world"--prince's biggest commercial hit under the symbol moniker--was originally released on bellmark records, stax legend al bell's label. there were several versions of the song on the beautiful experience ep, another project that was released before it found a home on an actual album. it's almost as if warner bros. tried to cash in on the song, too, trying to make the rest of the gold experience as commercial as "the most beautiful girl in the world." the result was an album that was overproduced and undermarketed. the gold experience had undergone so many changes by the time warner bros. released it, it was too polished and not as grimy as its original form--not even as spectacularly dark as come.

there are some great moments on it, though: the poetry of "shy" and "dolphin;" michael bland's sick drum work and prince's thunderous guitar on "shhh" and "eye hate u;" everything about "p control" which is the best feminist anthem since...ever; and the great fishbone sample on "billy jack bitch." however, the lackluster political statement and misuse of nona gaye's vocals on "we march" and "gold," which was just a boring, half-hearted attempt on prince's part to outdo "purple rain," make the gold experience anticlimactic, especially after more than a year of waiting for it. the unnecessary segues are a pain, too, especially when trying to import songs like "eye hate u" and "billy jack bitch" to itunes.

one of the best things to emerge from the gold experience project is the "eye hate u" maxi-single, which has a great remix on which prince makes some humorous forrest gump references.

chaos and disorder is another example of a bunch of prince songs being put together for an album, but in this case it seems to work better because it's imperfect and some of prince's best work is often found in the imperfections. the songs are short and bittersweet and most importantly, rosie gaines is back! she saves the title track, as well as "i rock therefore i am," and keeps the back-to-back ballads, "into the light" and "i will" from being too melodramatic. the album would've been an ideal, 10-song prince album if "right the wrong" wasn't included. other than that, it's garage band prince on his continued FU crusade against the record industry status quo.

if nothing else, this album can be appreciated for three reasons: the joni mitchell-inspired "dinner with delores" (his songs with names in the titles are always winners, see "the ballad of dorothy parker" [sign 'o the times, 1987] "lolita" [3121, 2006] and "zannalee," also on chaos and disorder), the album-ender "had u" and "i like it there" which has one of the best lyrics on which prince sings, "do you know how much i love you? more than i love my hair!"

come forth, symbolically

1992's o(+> was a more straightforward version of diamonds and pearls because there was a definite inspiration for o(+>, which was the woman who would be prince's first wife: mayte. prince seemed to be dreaming of a woman to inspire him on diamonds and pearls and he found her for this album. prince's battle with falling in love with a very young girl is all through it, too. mayte was barely 18 when it was released and prince's frustration with the legalities of love and sex can be heard in songs like "i wanna melt with u" in which he blatantly fantasizes about being mayte's first sexual experience.

while prince's desire for mayte is blatant in the album, other parts of o(+> can be less clear. it apparently includes songs from a rock opera he was working on ("3 chains o' gold," "7," perhaps even "arrogance," and "the flow") and segues on which actress kirstie alley can be heard as a relentless reporter named vanessa bartholomew. it's also the beginning of prince's use of the n-word in his lyrics--a precursor to what i call his angry period. for it was months after o(+> that prince changed his name to that very symbol. maybe prince's renewed bravado was his attempt to keep up with hip-hop which was growing by leaps and bounds in popularity due in part to the success of renegade artists like public enemy and n.w.a. prince only hinted at such anger on the black album (1987) on which he also used the n-word.

my favorite song on o(+> changes all the time. for awhile, i resented "7" because it was the hit. but the more i listen to it, the more it blows me away. that song is a choir of princes. what he does vocally on the chorus alone sounds like 100 voices, especially the last time the chorus is sung. it's a refrain of sorts: he sings the chorus twice before he gets to the first verse. both times, the lead vocal is on top--the same voice he uses for the first verse! sure it's repetitious, but prince manipulates it in such a way that makes you hear it differently each time, giving various cues before the chorus starts ("we will watch them fall," "i will watch them fall," "sing it while we watch them fall..."). "7" also displays the influence mayte's bellydancing had on the instrumentation. the middle eastern sounds dispersed throughout have a fuller effect on "7" than they did on 1985's "around the world in a day" maybe because the influence on "7" is directly related to prince's relationship with mayte and "around the world in a day" was more of a contribution from the musicians prince was working with at the time.

come is the album i picture prince recording with his shirt off--nappy chest hair glistening with sweat, while holding his crotch in his right hand and giving the finger with his left. it was released in 1994, a year after prince's name change. in his ongoing battle with warner bros., the album is only given a prince credit with his birth year (1958) and "death" year (1993) included on the cover. it's my favorite of his '90s work and also the first one since 1988's lovesexy i could listen to straight through. it's focused and concise (less than 50 minutes long) and one of my favorite things about it is that about one-fourth of the album is one song, the title track, "come."

"come" is an orgasmic 11-minute jazz suite. two minutes of the song display just how nasty prince used to be. i mean, the oral sex noises he makes leave you wondering if he was simulating or actually doing the real thing with a microphone nearby. that's why the song "orgasm" is unnecessary. it's merely a rusty bookend for "come." the only thing enjoyable about "orgasm" is the sample of prince's guitar solo from 1981's "private joy" on the controversy album. it's another example of how prince started sampling himself during the '90s. we see it in other songs like "my name is prince" from o(+> on which he samples "i wanna be your lover" and "controversy." by 1994, he had already created a bulky body of work (he'd released 15 albums up to this point), so he could effortlessly borrow from old projects and infuse them into the new ones.

other great standout tracks on come are "space," "loose!" "papa" and "letitgo," which is actually three words: let it go but prince made it one so as not to interrupt the continuity of one-word song titles for the album. "space" and "letitgo" were officially released as singles which also contained some of his best remixes, particularly "universal love" for "space" and the sherm stick mix of "letitgo," which uses an incredible sample of "the ballad of dorothy parker" (sign o' the times, 1987). "letitgo" is one of prince's most honest first-person narratives, containing lyrics like "all my life this heart's been under lock and key/my curtains were drawn, there wasn't nobody home...better off dead if i couldn't be alone."

he does some great screaming and guitar playing on "loose!" and "papa." both songs are like a shaken soda can: they explode when opened, then the explosion ends abruptly. "loose!" is a rave/frantically-dance-around-your-house-in-your-underwear chest-thumper, while "papa" is a desolate tale of child abuse that may be autobiographical.

graffiti pearls

unfortunate distractions often influence how people listen to prince's music. in graffiti bridge's case, the poorly-written and dimly-lit movie took people's focus away from the great songs prince contributed to the album/soundtrack.

the two best songs are "the question of u" and "joy in repetition." prince did all the voices and instruments on both--the former being one of the sexiest songs he's ever written. the bass and drums mimic the sound of thunderous pelvic thrusts against wet pavement, while his vocals and guitar solos weep over the track. prince does all the verses (all in the form of questions) back-to-back for "the question of u." the bridge and one-line chorus meld, only taking up about a minute of the song. he focuses on the instruments for the remaining 2:40, using his voice as an accent until the song fades.

the opening of "joy in repetition" brilliantly samples the dialogue at the end of "eye no" from prince's lovesexy (1988) album. the song hypnotically describes a lonely soul falling in love with a poet whose poem only has two words: "love me." this meeting of two love-starved people happens against a backdrop of the coldness of the club scene and the other lonely souls who gather within it. "joy in repetition" is another beautiful poem from prince, written with a similar clarity we see in his later songs like "strollin'," "shy," "eye love u but eye don't trust u anymore" and "reflection."

the rest of graffiti bridge is made up of work prince did with other artists: george clinton, tevin campbell, the time and mavis staples. his best collaborations are with clinton ("we can funk"), campbell ("round and round") and staples ("melody cool"). the songs he did with the time sound like throwaways from the band's reunion album of sorts, pandemonium.

prince abandoned poetry for popularity on diamonds and pearls. it was his most commercially successful album during the 90's, due in part to the fact that most of its songs are single-ready.

although "cream" was the popular song on the album, "willing and able" is the best one. prince mixes gospel and blues in it, allowing his whole band to contribute to his vision: rosie gaines and the steeles on background vocals, levi seacer, jr. on rhythm guitar, sonny thompson on bass, tommy barbarella on organ and michael b. on drums. eric leeds' flute work on "gett off" (and the flutestramental version on the maxi-single) is the icing on that funky cake of a song.

vocally, prince does some stellar work on diamonds and pearls. this is particularly evident in how he utilizes his tenor and baritone on the song "diamonds and pearls" and his falsetto on the verses for "strollin'" and baritone for the same song's harmonies. rosie gaines' golden throat is the perfect compliment to prince's music. obviously, prince thought so, too since she's the featured vocalist on diamonds and pearls. she was even a better rapper than the featured rapper for the album, tony m.

diamonds and pearls' greatest perk was all the maxi-singles and videos prince released in conjunction with the album. the "gett off " maxi-single and maxi-video, the diamonds and pearls video collection and the maxi-single for "cream" were great ways for people who couldn't see him in concert to get their prince fix. he did some really neat things on those side projects, too, including the hilarious crank phone call segues on the "cream" maxi-single. "violet the organ grinder" on the "gett off" maxi-single and video is another great display of prince's humor.

a few missteps on diamonds and pearls keep it from being as tight of an album as it could've been. "walk don't walk" should've only been a b-side for "cream," perhaps as "live 4 love" should've been for "money don't matter 2 nite." "jughead" and "push" either should've been one song or dropped from the album completely, while "insatiable" could've been at least 1:30 shorter.

prince & the 1990's

june will be prince music month on DPresents.

in anticipation of his forthcoming album, planet earth and in honor of his 49th birthday (june 7), i will examine some of his most underappreciated work during the decade his music was most ignored: the '90's.

unfortunately prince's contractual issues and master recordings battle with warner bros. and subsequent name change to a symbol greatly distracted from the music he made during that time period.

he was arguably at his most prolific and turned out startlingly diverse songs and albums. from graffiti bridge (1990) to rave un2 the joy fantastic (1999), each album stood on its own, sounding nothing like the one that preceded it.

this series will start with a look at graffiti bridge and diamonds and pearls (1991), and end with new power soul (1998) and rave un2 the joy fantastic.

forever my girl

during the ‘80’s most girls were either into madonna, janet jackson or whitney houston. of those three, janet jackson was my favorite. madonna spent a good portion of the decade mimicking b-girls and everything grace jones did during the ‘70’s, and i always felt like i could go to any church in america and hear someone sing like whitney houston...or better.

then along came jody watley. she returned to the u.s. in the mid-’80’s after spending a few years living in london and recorded her self-titled solo debut. she completely broke away from her former life as a soul train dancer and one-third of shalamar. everything from her voice to her style whispered individuality. her videos always looked like some avant-garde fashion shoot--my favorite being 1987’s “still a thrill” shot in black and white in paris. not since janet jackson’s “pleasure principle” had a music video been that well-executed in a minimalistic way.

ms. watley never blatantly copies from any particular artist. instead, she takes her influences and breaks them down to fit her own personality. her voice is simultaneously boutique, sexy and soulful--a feat even diana ross never quite mastered. when i was trying to find myself as a little girl, it was nice to see the end result of the journey in finding one’s own identity, manifest in someone like her.

i exhausted my mother, asking her to style my hair like ms. watley’s. her look on the cover of her larger than life album was my favorite: her hair is slick, straight and brushed back into an even, straight line that hits the middle of her back. her wardrobe staples of crinoline skirts, pedal pushers, bustiers and hightop canvas converse made up the required uniform for her one-woman army. because of ms. watley, i still get cravings for chucks. during her ‘80’s dance pop peak, i owned three pairs: my dad bought my first pair which were red, then came the blue-green and gray-pink.

her song “friends” was one of the first pop songs to effectively utilize an mc (in this case, rakim) throughout a song, not just for a few bars. her carpenters medley on her latest album, the makeover, reinvents the cover song. her voice on “close to you,” “superstar” and “we’ve only just begun” wraps karen carpenter’s melancholic undertones in sensuous layers of silk fabric.

she keeps carving out her own space in a hardened music industry that doesn’t know what to do with artists over 35 years old. she’s had her own independent label since the mid-’90s, long before most musicians recognized the necessity of owning their work.

over the years, my concentration on ms. watley has seesawed as i’ve gotten into other artists, but there will always be a part of my heart reserved only for her and at least one pair of chucks.

the british are gaining: noisettes

american musicians have gotten lazy. most bands, singers and mc's in the u.s. these days follow a proven formula instead of trying to create their own. the music lacks distinction and that's also translated visually. whatever genre the artist falls into, there's a ready-made treatment for their videos: choreography is required for singers, booties are required for mc's and disconnected imagery is required for rock bands. even older american musicians have succumbed to the collaboration album formula that was discovered when carlos santana released supernatural in 1999 (see the most recent works by sam moore and dionne warrick). predictability is boring and mind-numbing, and this country's musical landscape is overcast.

meanwhile, british artists have been studying american music, not cramming with a bunch of "best of" cd's. many of them know the entire body of work that comprises their genre. their hard work has paid off: they're not only doing american music better than americans, they're reinventing it. they are creating sounds that have never been heard and deconstructing american standards, putting their britishness in it while proving that americans don't speak for everybody and it doesn't have to be made in the u.s.a. to be relevant.

the noisettes have been compared to their american counterpart, the yeah yeah yeahs. both bands have scarce instrumentation: noisettes use bass, guitar and drums while yeah yeah yeahs use guitar while the drums double as a bass. both bands are fronted by brown girls with pristine vocals and wide-legged stances: yeah yeah yeahs' karen o straddles the space in her band's music, while noisettes' shingai shoniwa straddles a bass.

rock is a compellable art form, and the noisettes have perfected that more so than the yeah yeah yeahs. the opening songs on both bands' first full length albums prove that. noisettes' "don't give up" on what's the time mr. wolf? pulls you by the neck, but you can clean your kitchen counter to the yeah yeah yeahs' "rich." their opening song for fever to tell should've been "date with the night" but it's the second track. "don't give up" (as album openers should) sets the mood for the entire album, only gaining steam with each track. however, after "rich," you spend the rest of fever to tell drifting in and out of consciousness: "date with the night," "pin" and "maps" work, but the rest of the album flitters about. uncertainty is for rehearsal, not a recording.

in rock, passiveness should only be allowed in ballads. rock ballads spend the entire song fighting with being vulnerable and being hard, a trait well illustrated in yeah yeah yeah's "maps." now that's a tolerable formula that shouldn't be compromised.

man on man action

the male singer duet in pop music is nearly extinct. it was abundant during the 1980’s with great collaborations between singers like kenny loggins and el debarge (“i’ll be there”), michael mcdonald and james ingram (“yah moh b there”), mick jagger and david bowie (“dancing in the street”), rod stewart and ron isley (“this old heart of mine”) and luther vandross and gregory hines (“there’s nothing better than love”).

when the 1990’s arrived, rap grew in popularity and the singer/rapper duet was born. the singer now represents the soft side of masculinity--the feminine side, if you will, while the rapper represents the hard side of masculinity. that pairing has remained even into the 21st century and has a fraternal twin called the rapper/rapper duet. can it get any harder than that? it’s as if two men singing together has become forbidden, making it imperative to get rid of any possibility that two men could be attracted to each other.

that was never really an issue during the 1980’s when rappers stayed to themselves and men sang together without a cloud of homophobia hanging over them. perhaps that suggests the 1980’s in the u.s. was more progressive than the reagan administration that governed most of the decade.

if you look at all these harder groupings, the suggested homoeroticism is rampant. no matter how many half-clad women are in a video, the men they’re playing up to aren’t even paying any attention to them! often, the men are being more affectionate with each other, giving each other dap, getting in a huddle and pushing each other, doing an improvised dance together, or hugging as they greet (this is often displayed in slow motion).

look at the video for timbaland’s “give it to me.” the song features justin timberlake and nelly furtado, but in the video, we see shots of timbaland and timberlake chumming it up backstage (even taking a photo with will.i.am during which timbaland vigorously shakes him) while furtado walks around by herself; timbaland and timberlake on what appears to be a tour bus while furtado does her part from a balcony...by herself; and the most telling is the performance scene during which timbaland and timberlake are never less than a foot away from each other dancing onstage, while furtado is about 10 feet away from them singing the hook and dancing by herself.

men aren’t singing together anymore, and they’re not singing love songs to women the way they used to, but they sure have a lot a love for each other.

we forget about mrs. estefan

gloria estefan was a one-woman latin explosion in u.s. pop music during the 1980’s. her 1985 hit, “conga” (from the appropriately-titled album, primitive love) introduced north america to a sound that was old hat in certain parts of the u.s. and caribbean. the only other latina with consistent pop success during that time was lisa lisa, but she didn’t fuse elements of latin music the way estefan did. lisa lisa was pop/r&b, in huge part because she was produced by full force. estefan was pop without compromising her musical roots, which were also influenced by folk, soft rock, soul and jazz.

i remember seeing a photo of her and celia cruz in an issue of rolling stone when i was 10 years old. a blurb accompanied the picture, basically saying that cruz was estefan’s main influence. i had never heard of cruz until that point, but seeing her and estefan in that photo laughing side by side, let me know how proud estefan was to show cruz off to an audience that didn’t have a clue who she was.

estefan rarely gets credit for this, but she also helped make miami a hotbed of hipness. the city is now often mentioned in the same sentence with l.a. and new york as a place where celebrities buy property and sunbathe. simply calling her band the miami sound machine helped create a new musical curiosity about a city that had mostly been known for its political history.

“rhythm is gonna get you” was unlike anything on the radio when it was released in 1987. it’s the perfect example of how estefan was unashamed to use afro-cuban and indigenous rhythms in what became a huge pop hit for her.

the hits kept coming for estefan clear through the early ‘90s, even her 1993 spanish-language album, mi tierra earned her a grammy.

unfortunately, hers was all but erased from the list of names credited for the so-called latin explosion of the late ‘90s. however, estefan’s prolific and diverse body of work rivals that of madonna, whitney houston and the other singers who were in direct competition with estefan during the ‘80s and whose careers took interesting turns during the ‘90s.

depth

in a time when most women singers are trying to sound like whitney houston or mariah carey, it's nice when one emerges sounding like themselves.

there's always a special place for women singers with deep voices. their tones usually have melancholic histories. when there's humor in the songs they sing, there's always an underlying sarcasm. it sometimes emerges when they push their voices to higher heights, a feat that can teeter on the edge of tears. nina simone, betty carter, dionne warwick, carmen mcrae and etta james mastered the art of manipulating their deep voices to represent a myriad of human emotions. there are a few of the younger generation who do that well, too: rosie gaines, brandy, joan osborne and alice smith.



alice smith has a rich, husky tone. sometimes she sounds like she's singing through a lump in her throat. you can really hear that quality in her song, "do i." then there are times when she sounds like she's humming a ditty that turns into an all-out production while she does some cleaning in her house as her lover strums a guitar ("love endeavor") or plays piano ("secrets").

when i first heard "dream" on her myspace page, i became obsessed with getting her album. hopefully, after reading this, you will be too.

you’ll probably start hearing more about her soon

back to black is amy winehouse’s formal introduction to the u.s. her video for “you know i’m no good” is already getting play on mtv hits, mtv jams and vh1 soul. the album doesn’t have as much character as frank, her debut, but it still showcases what a fantastic voice she has. after back to black is released stateside (march 13), most who hear it will probably be impressed with what a refreshing change winehouse is bringing to the current singer/songwriter landscape.

her soulful delivery is raw and unapologetically blue--the complete opposite of norah jones’ polite whispers, and light years more sincere than joss stone’s contrived vocals.

there’s not much difference in winehouse (23) and stone’s (19) ages, but there’s a huge difference in their voices. stone gives the impression that she grew up listening to and imitating soul singers. winehouse listened to soul music, too, but she also listened to jazz singers with equal diligence which is evident in her ability to interpret and not imitate. that ability is particularly evident on her version of “moody’s mood for love” on frank.

it’s exciting to watch winehouse’s growth. back to black is not a disappointment, it’s a surprise. she didn’t make a frank part two. she made a more mature and concise album this time around, with more ready-to-go singles which makes it prime for american accessibility. frank is more experimental--a tight ball of jazz, lounge and hip hop stuck on a lint-ball covered soul blanket.

slow drip

when was the last time you heard a female mc's voice sampled on a rap song? exactly. one song comes to mind, "rump shaker" by wreckx-n-effect. that's mc lyte's voice on the "booties start shakin' and movin' all around" part, but that was 15 years ago!

well, we can thank snoop for using ladybug mecca's voice on his latest song, "candy," and she's actually in the video, lip-synching to her own lyric ("you want 'em, i got 'em, drippin' like water"). that's ladybug mecca from digable planets. digable planets--the fugees' predecessors who were like some bebop hip-hop flying saucer from outer space. "rebirth of slick (cool like dat)" was their biggest hit, but the sample snoop uses is from "9th wonder (blackitolism)" which was on their blowout comb album, released in 1994. they were never heard from again as a group after contributing to 1995's inner city blues: the music of marvin gaye, a tribute album also featuring lisa stansfield, stevie wonder, neneh cherry and nona gaye. digable planets contributed, "marvin, you're the man" on which ladybug raps in portuguese!

they parted ways soon after, with a grammy in tow. butterfly (who gave one of the most memorable acceptance speeches in grammy history) had a son with coko from swv and appeared on camp lo's uptown saturday night album. doodlebug changed his name to cee knowledge and ladybug released trip the light fantastic in 2005. she has a song on it called "you never get over it" about her parents' deaths.

digable planets have since reunited, somewhat, doing an occasional show here and there. no official word on if a new album is in the works. in the meantime, we can see ladybug in the "candy" video, and her own for "you never get over it."

m.i.a. is b.i.a.!

m.i.a. is a one-woman public enemy, but with far more complex beats and apropos lyrics for a post millennium world in her arsenal. her first album, arular, was all i listened to for about a month straight when it was released in 2005. can't wait for her new one. take a listen to the first single, "bird flu" aptly titled, as she says, "because this beat gon' kill everyone!"

after that, who even remembers billy joel singing the national anthem?

it's moments like prince's super bowl half time performance that make me thankful to be alive.

curiously strong mint

it may be a few days before i recover from what i witnessed this weekend. i saw the band mint condition perform in raleigh, north carolina where they covered a century of american musical history in a two-hour set. i screamed (thanks for screaming with me, lois!), headbanged, laughed, fought a lump in my throat and swooned all in one night.

most of the band is from minnesota's twin cities, except for bass player ricky kinchen who's from chicago and houston native, drummer chris dave who tours with them. they are doing a fine job of continuing the legacy their minnesotan predecessors began.

they may speak the contrary, but they really seem to be peerless. there are very few bands with a 20-year history that have a voracious work ethic, are still making relevant albums and touring on a regular basis. these guys are, and they're still a well-kept secret.

their flagship song, "breakin' my heart (pretty brown eyes)" was a tremendous commercial hit in 1991. other hit ballads followed: "you send me swingin'" (1993), "what kind of man would i be" (1996) and "if you love me" (1999). but this is a compact band that makes complete albums, not just one hit and a bunch of filler.

people are doing themselves a huge disservice if they only stop at the hits. mint condition satisfies every musical appetite, from straight-ahead rock ("sometimes," "fallin' apart"), funk and jazz to elements of gospel, classical, caribbean, hip-hop, latin, afrobeat and blues. sometimes you get a surprise treat like the two hidden tracks at the end of 1999's, life's aquarium, or they'll throw in some steel pan, reminding you that this instrument exists! other times, you'll get several elements in one song ("the tempest").

they do a thorough job of using their instruments to explain why they do what they do. it feels like a church service--you watch them simultaneously worship, praise and perform. at the raleigh show, they paid tribute to their hometown heroes (guitarist, o'dell teased the crowd with riffs from "d.m.s.r." and "777-9311") and james brown (they did a funked up rock romp version of "soul power"). there was also an exhaustive drum duet between lead singer stokley and chris dave and a jazz segment featuring their keyboardist lawrence waddell and keyboardist/saxaphonist jeffrey allen. when it was all over, i stood there, deranged and inspired.

gwen & fergie: fraternal twins

when fergie’s album, the dutchess, was released, i had conversations with people who would say “there’s no way that london bridge song would’ve been popular if gwen stefani had a new project out.” many argue that gwen is the more original of the two. well, not really. gwen’s just a little better at hiding the source of her inspiration.

both women started out with groups or bands. gwen had several hits with no doubt. fergie, however, didn’t have worldwide success during her curvier-bodied, blonder days as stacy ferguson with her first group, wild orchid. two other girls were in the group with her, but all three were pretty forgettable. the hot-girl-in-the-band formula definitely worked in her favor after she joined the black eyed peas. she became the pop centerpiece for a hip-hop group that started off as a trio who specialized in quirky, original lyrics and b-boy madness.

black eyed peas’ will.i.am probably reached an agreement with fergie: you help us go pop, i help you go solo. that was not the case for gwen. she had apprehension about her solo aspirations, which is clearly spelled out in “what you waiting for?” from her love.angel.music.baby debut.

their beginnings may be vastly different, but their current singles borrow heavily from ‘80s girl rap groups. "fergalicious" is really just an updated and less interesting version of jj fad’s "supersonic." the same can be said for gwen’s "wind it up" and l’trimm’s "cars that go boom" she even uses part of that lyric. everyone’s so preoccupied with her “sound of music” vibe for the video and song, they’re missing the real sample.

for gwen, the borrowing is a continuation of all the 80’s lusciousness on love.angel.music.baby. for fergie, it’s a safe way for her to experiment with rapping in a way that doesn’t imply she’s trying to infringe on a genre in which her vocal origins are not rooted. “fergalicious” is quite a nasty song, actually, most of which is about how her image gives guys erections. but that raunchy braggadocio is camouflaged under the same sing-songyness jj fad used to talk about nosey people.

gwen’s done similar borrowing before. the call-and-response feel of “hollaback girl” reminds me of “double dutch bus.” is it any coincidence that megawatt producer, pharrell williams is behind both “hollaback girl” and “wind it up?” he and will.i.am do a good job of bringing pop sensibilities to the songs they write for women. they’ve definitely done their research on women’s contributions to 80’s pop music. proof positive: pharrell knows every word to mc lyte’s “paper thin.” he was singing along with her from the audience during a hip-hop tribute at the 2004 bet awards.