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Corinne Bailey Rae: The Sea
Anyone who’s been through a serious loss knows about the baffling part: After it’s over, you are still you. You are you, plus the loss, plus the pain and confusion the loss causes. The process of healing isn’t really a matter of “getting over it” — taking it in is what’s necessary, incorporating what’s been [...]
Continue reading...Maxwell: BLACKsummers’ Night
25. October 2009
The best way to listen to Maxwell’s new “BLACKsummers’ Night” is with the volume turned all the way up. The R&B artist didn’t take a turn toward heavy metal during the eight years he’s spent between releasing albums; this one, like his previous three, is full of meditative jams written on the continuum between ardor [...]
Continue reading...Laura Izibor: Let The Truth Be Told
25. October 2009
The Irish diva is soon to go global via her debut album on Atlantic. This album from the young Dubliner was set to be released on Jive Records three years ago, but got shelved. Then, another label, Atlantic, took their time in deciding just when it should see be released. “Let The Truth Be Told” [...]
Continue reading...Johnson&Jonson: Johnson & Jonson
10. January 2009
Blu certainly is valedictorian of the 2007 class. This Los Angeles emcee can’t slow down, and releasing project after project, he excelled quickly from rap fan to gracing XXL covers, and collaborating with a crop of peers that just want to share his spotlight. After the magic of Below The Heavens was followed with the [...]
Continue reading...Common: Universal Mind Control
10. January 2009
Everything’s wacky in Chicago hip-hop these days: Kanye West is all mopey and contemplative, while Common has just landed on Planet Rock. “This is that new shit/It don’t feel the same,” goes the hook to the title track of the rapper/actor’s latest, which, in its employment of the entire soundtrack from the Atari 2600 edition [...]
Continue reading...Q-Tip: The Renaissance
21. December 2008
Q-Tip’s solo career reads like a bad joke. As A Tribe Called Quest’s frontman, he led the alternative hip hop movement and helped establish hip hop as a literate and creative art form during the 90s. After the Native Tongues moved on and ATCQ disbanded, Tip released his solo debut Amplified in 1999 and looked [...]
Continue reading...Jason Mraz: We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
7. November 2008
From the first track to last Jason Mraz dazzles, perplexes and scintillates on his high-octane 3rd full-length studio album “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things.” His witty, highly individual lyrical style and organic, powerful backing band transform these songs into four minute detours into the mind of the most underrated singer/songwriter of the 2000s. Lead [...]
Continue reading...Santogold: Santogold
6. November 2008
The superficial comparisons between Santi White aka Santogold and hipster darling MIA are just that — superficial. It is only when White uses an off-the-cuff or repetitive adlib on her self-titled debut that even a remote comparison can be drawn between the two. The fact is, when you peel back the layers on Santi White’s [...]
Continue reading...Murs: Murs for President
5. November 2008
Since the very beginning of Murs’ career, he has always had a different outlook on the game than his fellow peers from the west coast power-house collective, the Living Legends crew. Since 1995, Murs has been one of the hardest working rappers in the game. Officially, this is his 7th full-length album, which barely speaks [...]
Continue reading...Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It
5. November 2008
It has been four years since the world last heard from Raphael Saadiq as an artist. He was busy on the production side of music, collaborating with artists like Alicia Keys, Teedra Moses and Joss Stone. The Way I See It, Saadiq’s third solo album, is similar to his first two in the [...]
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10. February 2010
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