Following up on the retro sounds of his last album, The Way I See It, singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist (and former member of Tony Toni Tone and Lucy Pearl) Raphael Saadiq has decided on a similar format for his fourth solo album, Stone Rollin‘. Variously described as a ’70s tribute album/sequel to The Way I See It (which had a more ’60s vibe) or a “rock” album, Stone Rollin‘ is neither, really. While it’s instantly recognizable as a successor to The Way I […]
Posts tagged "Spin Cycle"
Spin Cycle: Chris Brown’s “F.A.M.E.”
It would be too easy to trash Chris Brown’s new album, right? The guy’s a certified asshole. Not content to man up and apologize for his widely-publicized beating of Rihanna, he’s been a one-man self-implosion device since then-bitching about being blackballed, going on random Twitter rampages and most recently, going bananas after Robin Roberts dared ask him about the Rihanna beating on “Good Morning America”. But what does the fact that he’s an asshole have to do with his music? […]
Spin Cycle: Lupe Fiasco “Lasers”
I’ve mentioned it several times before…when an album has drama surrounding it, a lot of times it’s hard to separate the drama from the music being created. That phenomenon reared it’s ugly head yet again with the release of Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco’s third album, Lasers. The album’s been on various release schedules for almost a year, and has had several teaser singles surface over that time. The word on the street is that Lupe and his label, Atlantic, were […]
Spin Cycle: Marsha Ambrosius’ “Late Nights & Early Mornings”
Marsha Ambrosius’ solo debut has been a long time coming, considering she’s been in the music biz for almost a decade. As one half of the innovative R&B duo Floetry, her creamy vocals seemed a bit constrained by the occasionally clumsy raps of her partner Natalie Stewart. Although their two studio albums were successful, Marsha really earned her stripes as a songwriter, arranger and guest vocalist for artists ranging from Michael Jackson (“Butterflies”), Justin Timberlake (“Cry Me a River”) and […]
Spin Cycle: Michael Jackson’s “Michael”
Album Reviews / Michael Jackson / music / New Releases / news / pop culture / Pop Music / soul music
“Michael” is the first release of unreleased material from Michael Jackson since his passing. It turns out to be a halfway decent compilation.
Spin Cycle: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” by Kanye West
It’s one thing to not like Kanye West’s music. I’m a reasonable guy, and I don’t expect everyone to like everything. I can even understand if you’re not a fan of hip-hop. Well, I can’t understand it, but I can give you a pass. However, it unnerves the hell out of me when people criticize Kanye’s art based on his public persona-especially when all they know of him is maybe the four or five songs they hear on the radio […]
Spin Cycle: Quincy Jones “Soul Bossa Nostra”
The fact that “Soul Bossa Nostra” even exists is a bit confusing to me. Like, did this album need to be made? After all-it basically amounts to a huge slap on the back for Quincy Jones. Not to say he doesn’t deserve props-the man was at the top of his game for the better part of forty years and is an integral part of music history, let alone black music history. But I question the wisdom of letting a who’s […]
