0015: Al Green: Simply Beautiful

The first time I recall hearing this song was when Maxwell returned to the spotlight at the 2008 BET Awards and covered this Al Green classic. I don't know how I could let a bearskin-rug song like this slip past my radar.

Al Green is the master of wails. Soulful, unintelligible sounds, replete with desire and admiration. It's as if he couldn't find the words for what he wanted to say but also couldn't hold it in any longer. He may not be saying anything per se, but you know what he's talking about. 

Damn. I've got plans for this song.

Simply Beautiful.

0014: Justin Timberlake: Magic

What a lovely tease this is. Reports have it that Stargate (producers of the track) let this one leak into the music-loving public. No one is quite sure about whether this song is intended for a future album or if it was a spare b-side that was never used.

I'm hoping for the former because this track is hot. I've obsessed myself with deciphering the lyrics, but there's a spot in the song that's nigh unintelligible, and it's starting to drive me nuts. But I press on through frustration.

It's very indicative of JT's pop and dancy sound, so there's nothing new here. That's actually a good thing - his voice and persona carry it well, so I don't see a reason why he should tinker and foul a proven formula that's still widely accepted and appreciated.

I've been sitting on this song for a while now... kinda figured that everyone who's reading this post knows how to use the internet and by extension knows how to find things on said internet. It's been a little over a month since the leak, but I say better late than never. For those of you who've not heard it yet, let this post be your heads-up: I urge you to cop a listen. It's a banger.

I'd point you in the right direction with this song if I had a viable link. Y'all are gonna have to do some footwork for this one. Trust me, it's worth it.

And when it does become a track on a new album: BUY IT

0013: Musiq Soulchild: Just Friends (Sunny)

I received this album as a birthday gifts from a very good friend a loooong time ago. He had heard this song and figured it was something I would dig. And I did. IMMENSELY. 

I think I'm a sucker for the organ keyboard and hand claps. Or maybe effortless lyrics and the way they're conveyed. Simply a wonderful, badass song.

Again, proof that songs can be about the simpler things - like flirting and attraction - and still turn heads and volume dials.

0012: Faith Evans: All Night Long

I can't believe I slept on this song until I heard it as a closing song on an episode of Entourage. The chorus is beautifully sung by a handful of Faith harmonies, and the beat, although simple, is perpetually compelling. 

This one surprised me. When I realized it was a 90's Bad Boy track, I had to go back and rediscover their library. For what little lyrical skill Puffy/Diddy has, he definitely knows how to pull a crowd by their ears.

One of Bad Boy's best offerings.

0011: Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth: They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)

One of my first contacts with what I consider good hip-hop. No machismo, no bravado, no misogyny - just relevant social commentary over a dope beat, backed by them horns.

16 years old and this song still holds it down.

0010: Billy Paul: Me and Mrs. Jones

Do you hear how Mr. Paul is singing this song?

Cot DAMN Mrs. Jones had something damn GOOD goin' on!

I may conceive my first daughter to this song and name her Mrs. Jones.

If anyone still believes in slow dancing, this ought to be the song you dance to right before you make sweet love by the fire. And maybe this song should be preceeded by this one.

0009: Shai: Yours (Acappella)

Shai (Egyptian for personification of destiny or fate) churned out a bunch of great singles off their first album, starting with a true acappella song called If I Ever Fall In Love. This kind of introduction to the public gave them a solid identity as a talented vocal group. They enjoyed a string of subsequent successes afterward, up to and including a true live performance of a new song, Yours (likely an extensive version of an album song, Baby I'm Yours).

This is quintessential acappella for me. Every part is gorgeously sung. I don't know how else to describe the song. It's plain, gorgeous.

I remember wishing I was a member of Shai when I first heard this song. They must have gotten so much pie for singing this.

0008: Jon B: Don't Talk

Copped the latest Jon B offering yesterday (I'll give it a whirl and let y'all know what I think in a later post). I hadn't seen this cat in a while, so as I picked up his new joint I recalled his older library. And then I got stuck on Don't Talk.

This is a straight-up good-time song. Beautiful dichotomy between the subdued/whispered chorus and the energetic and perpetual beat. This song is smoooooth as hell.

Lyrically it's ideal. Sometimes I don't want to hear someone sing about love or sex or hating or inane things like that. Sometimes, you just want to hear about the little things that happen when you're out and about in a lounge. No angst, no drama - just buying drinks, flirting, and having a good time. 

Reminds me a bit of Musiq's Forthenight. 

Proof that great songs don't have to be controversial.

0007: Mos Def: Ms. Fat Booty

It was the Aretha sample that got me hooked on this. And then the beat. And then the flow. Mos has an eerily effortless flow no matter what he performs. If I could choose an artist's style to mimic, it would be his. Maybe Boots Riley. But definitely Mos.

All the words are put together so well - the story is nonchalant but in full-color commentary. Clever analogies, relevant references, a call-back to musical pioneers, meter, simplicity, flows like a subdued machine gun; an overgrowth of aural substantiality. 

For a much younger me, this song was quintessential hip-hop. I'm sure there are finer examples of hip-hop as an art form, but this is where modern hip-hop history begins in my mind. 

In fact I love this song so much I've even performed this song at a karaoke bar. With DEFT ACCURACY. No joke. 

Interlude: Shout Outs

If you don't mind, I'ma take a moment to drop Nameless Props.

BlackMan: "Here's to us, fuck everyone else." Stella?

Fallywallyshlamalamadingdong: The Groupie's Perspective is always good to be privy to.

Reno: You drafted the idea for this machine, and for that I thank you.

Jazzybelle: you're my musical kindred spirit.

Pelechati: Half of the music I know is because of your influence.

Savannah: I heart you. You make the term BFF tolerable and cute. But only when you say it.

Jane: My lovely, beautiful cheerleader. You're my oldest, dearest friend. Your love and support mean the world to me, in this endeavor and life in general. I love you to pieces.

You all influenced me in one way or another with this project, whether you know it or not. I take all of your input with grand appreciation. 

And don't be all butthurt because I didn't use your real name. Allusion and anonymity are the new foreplay. Get with it.

0006: Bilal: Sometimes

Now THIS song... this song is pure soul to me. I heard it for the first time a few years back while spending the night at a lovely friend's house. She put on some music from an iPod playlist called "sexytime" for us to fall asleep to and this song came on in the middle of the night when I had dazed out of sleep for a moment. It was a bit ethereal, most likely because I was still a bit sloshed from our drinking and partying exertions from earlier in the evening, but the impression it left on me was long-lasting. When I woke the next morning, she and I went through the list to find the song I was jonesing for, and when we found it, I couldn't get it out of my head. 

D'Angelo once said that the organ is the sexiest instrument in modern music, and songs like this make me believe it. The instrumentation, the sultry melodies and harmonies, the crescendos and subsequent mellows, the screaming, shameless wails... good god. 

Sometimes is honestly seven of my favorite minutes I spend on any given day that I listen to it. Periodically it's 49 of my favorite minutes when I drive to the city. I've had a very good night where it was 182 AMAZING minutes. Well, perhaps it wasn't the only song that played through that night, but the energy and lust it evoked were there in spirit, certainly. 

Moody, sultry, sexy - this is what foreplay and making out would look like if it were a string of musical notes.

0005: Jamiroquai: Butterfly

I ALWAYS forget about this song. I'm always displeased with myself when I figure out that I do. But I can't realize that I've forgotten about it unless I rediscover it, and THAT is why I started posting about my rediscoveries. 

More soul than electronic or synth-pop, this song has a fleeting quality I dig so much. Perhaps the long drawn out flowy notes he sings at the end of his lines, maybe the elongated strings all throughout, but most definitely it has a lot to do with the subdued background chants of, "I want it, I want it" - that's some sugar right there.

Reminds me of driving on a long, endless road with no one else around, backdropped by rolling hills, the setting sun, and the sky. And oddly, it feels right in the winter, too.

0004: Charles Cameron and Sunshine Festival: I Will Never Stop Loving You

My post about dancing with a gorgeous woman reminded me of this song. It's obscure to say the least - though it may not be available on iTunes, you can preview the song here and subsequently acquire it from here.

The first time I heard this was while watching Love Jones. Darius gets Nina to come out with him to a reggae club and they dance to this song. 

Most songs that have the word "love" in them are either very sad and melancholy or very happy and full of life, and this song is the latter. The scene from the movie (roughly time-stamped around 00:28:45) made me want to go to the Wild Hare, and really, Chicago. It also made me a fan of Nia Long (mmmmdelicious).

For a long time, this song was my Holy Grail of music. It was out there, I knew it, but it seemed so unattainable. But because I have it now, I truly love the internet.

This post sums up a lot of what I want to do with this blog - remember the things I should have never forgotten, and work off of the tangents that come to mind because of it. And also to introduce you all to something worth introducing you to.

Anyway, enjoy. This is alllllll mellowsmoothe.

0003: Wayne Wonder: No Letting Go

When I first heard this song, I was tossed, dancing with a gorgeous girl on a packed dancefloor. Something about the beat is primal - the synth, the drums, the hand claps, I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was the alcohol that tweaked my senses, but dancing to this song, with that girl, was amazing. I think vodka makes me sexy.

Listening to it now, it certainly withstood the test of time time. It's nearly six years old and it still sounds great, sober or drunk.

And the girl I was dancing with? I still see her often nowadays. And she's still gorgeous, and very lovely. 

I wasn't THAT drunk.

0002: Lucy Pearl

Their first (self-titled) album was sadly their last and only album, but it was (IS) pure sugar. A collaboration of three of the biggest names around the soul and hip-hop world, Raphael Saadiq from Tony! Toni! Tone!, Dawn Robinson from En Vogue (mmmmdelicious) and Ali Shaheed Mohammed from ATCQ all came together to make a "fun" album, for the sake of fun. Their first single "Dance Tonight" proved they had the right idea, pulling off a tune thats both simple but energetic, and has become a relative classic party song. "La La La" shows off Saadiq's lyrical balls, replete with sexual innuendo over light scratches and a gentle and seemingly harmless sounding drums/strings/scratch loop. "I Can't Stand Your Mother" is a great joke song for... everyone, really. We've all been there. "You" with a guest appearance from Q-Tip and Snoop Dogg brings it all back with a soothing melody topped with celebrity flows. 

In the end, contractual disagreements caused them to split. It's a shame really, especially for those of you who never had the opportunity to see them live (I saw them at Bimbo's in San Francisco, and they were off the chain). I don't doubt that you may have heard one or two of their songs, but really, this entire album is worth listening to and owning. You should get in your car and go buy. Now

note - I would have hyperlinked the album, but iTunes is doing purveyors of good soul a huge injustice by not offering it on their online store. For shame, iTunes. I thought I knew ya.

0001: Maxwell. Let's start this off right.

Maxwell changed my life. 

Right out of high school, I listened to what my friends listened to: Green Day, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, The Offspring, blah blah blah. That's what was popular at that time, and I don't think I was mature enough to have developed my own musical tastes. I was a sheep. 

I also read GQ and Details quite a bit - yeah, I was training to be a man and that's how I did it. In one particular issue of Details, there was a one-page article about a new artist named Maxwell, accompanied by a photo of him - a quiet, charismatic, suited cat with a lush afro. The article went on about this kid from Brooklyn who bought a keyboard and made music in his bedroom. It further went on about his freshman offering, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (henceforth referred to as UHS). It was a concept album which told the story, chronologically from song to song, about how this young gentleman met a woman, flirted with, became infatuated with, loved, parted from, reunited with, and proposed to. 

Now aside from the alternative stuff I was listening to at the time, I was also starting to pick up some old soul sounds like Al Green and Marvin Gaye. Though I didn't reveal this to anyone at the time, I was kind of a fan of these cats. Something clicked when I heard their wails and falsettos and yearning cries for women and... other stuff. I was definitely susceptible to this old stuff, and I'm almost certain that they got me ready for Maxwell before I knew I was ready.

Intrigued, I drove to the CD shop right then and picked up a copy of UHS. I tore it open, played the disc in my room, and when it was over, I played it again. I think I may have listened to it five times or so before I decided it was time for bed, and when I woke the next day, I listened to it twice more before I brushed my teeth. 

Although I feel like I had a pretty good starting foundation with soul music, Maxwell was different, still. He was definitely soul - the wails, the yearning, the booty-on-a-bearskin-rug-next-to-the-fireplace sound - but the way he sang about women was... amazing. He's the cat who thinks you're the highest of the high, who just wants to kick a lil' sumthin' sumthin'... who gets driven crazy from the smell of she. Yeah, the smell of SHE. Strictly badass.

Maxwell loves women for all the reasons all men love women, but he loves them even more because they ARE women. I'm a big fan of intimacy and romanticism, but before any of that happens, there's flirting, there's profound attraction, there's dinner, there's wine, and then there's the next time you do it all again. I can have dinner with one of my boys, but I'd honestly much rather have dinner with a worthwhile lady. 

He doesn't unapologetically jump into a lady's pants, he digs on her first. The pants thing comes later. 

So after about 24 hours with this album, I changed. The alternative stuff my friends were listening to was fun, but I wanted to live these songs I had just listened to. UHS gave me a profound appreciation and love for women. I opened doors. I pulled chairs. I walked on the streetside. I made eye contact. So in a sense, Maxwell made me strive to be a gentleman. 

Shortly after, I found out that GQ was short for Gentleman's Quarterly. How appropriate. 

That album opened the doors into a whole genre of music for me to discover. D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Bilal, Musiq - the list goes on and on. I went back and picked up more from the Reverend and Marvin, along with Aretha and James and Stevie and others. 

With no disrespect to the modern originators of soulful music, I doubt I'd ever have gone through the old school libraries if I hadn't first been truly mesmerized by UHS. My musical chronology is a bit backwards, but it all got me to the same place.

Now I'm less of a sheep, more of a gentleman. 

Intro: How this all came to be.

If you're reading this, I want to thank you for your interest in what goes on in my head. 

This soapbox all came about when a friend implanted into my head that I ought to blog about my personal music tastes. Frankly, it's nothing extraordinary - I think I just have a good ear for tunes and lyrics, coupled with a relatively good memory that's very fond of nostalgia. 

As a side gig, I compose music playlists for a family of very hip and high-profile restaurants. I got into this while I was managing one of their locations. I saw an urgent and very real need for a renovation of their sound and identity, and so I offered to make a list just for fun. I turned this set loose on the public one weekend, and then the next... and then the next, and the next. The response was remarkable - the entire staff was elated for a breath of fresh (and modern) air, and the business - the weekend evening lounge in particular - boomed exponentially. A playlist on an iPod turned into an organic and personally controlled list on a music server, and my instincts and profound appreciation for controlling an environment through music and clever timing evolved along with the restaurant's popularity. All of a sudden, people were coming to the restaurant SPECIFICALLY for the music.

Though I've moved on from the restaurant, I continue to compose music sets for the restaurants as a labor of love. It's gratifying to hear about a guest who marvels at the selections I put forth, but it's infinitely more gratifying to discover and rediscover new and old music. This forum is my way of getting my thoughts on certain songs out there so that you all can either read and find something unexpected, or better yet recall something from way back in the day that you feel you should have never forgotten. 

And let there be no discussion about what I do: I compose and put forth the music, but I am not a turntablist. I respect DJs far too much to even consider calling myself one.

Anyway, welcome to my head. Enjoy the music.

-mellowsmoothe