nu-soul = parallel to dadrock?

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So,could nu-soul (for want of a better word) be the equivalent of dadrock/tradrock,with emphasis on songwriterly craft and seriousness about carrying on where people left off thirty years ago?

Damian, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

With exceptions, yes.

Robin Carmody, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

beverly knight as paul weller

, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And almost never consumed by black record buyers. I can confirm that Alicia Keys is far bigger in Holland Park than she is in Tooting.

Norti Contrarious, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Add to that a stultifying lack of real ambition (or at least ambition that amounts to more than merely emulating the ambitions of those who have gone before). Jill Scott's guest appearance on 4 Hero's album sounds fabulous because it's so big and gloriously over the top, ie. a world away from the anachronistic "realness" of the usual nu-soul sound.

Tim, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean,that's a good one.So does Alicia Keys therefore = Starsailor? Young,overhyped and all that.I dunno...there's Afrofuturism and then there's Angie Stone.

Damian, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

When I first saw the video for "Fallin'" I wanted to hate Keys, the song and everything to do with her: just that impression of "class" that the image of her showing off her "classical training" tried to give out. I quite like the song now, but still anyone who sits at a grand piano as though it puts them on a higher plain to everything else in the charts deserves to be shot.

Didn't Redman *murder* Beverley Knight on that guest appearance he did?

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone yet comparing Macy Gray's recent vanity project to the second Terence Trent D'Arby album, both in terms of commercial showing and on the amount of complete tawdry lying shit that both artists were sold off. God forbid that she ever releases an equivalent of "She Kissed Me".

Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Robin,I never thought of that TTd comparison,but it seems apt enough at the moment.What irks me most about Fallin' is those grunts and uh- uhs - they don't sit well with the trad approach of the song,which might seem a strange complaint in light of this thread.If she's going to be a revivalist,she should at least be honest about it instead of trying to hide behind all those grunts.

Damian, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Walk in the Park" and "A Woman's Worth" are the two WORST WORST WORST R&B singles from the past year, and virtually the only songs which demand I switch stations. Especially "Walk". I quite liked "Fallin'" until it got overplayed. Precisely because there was something relentlessly modern in the production which felt like it was recasting soul in a new way. Badu is fine, often dull, good on the Outkast album, but christ go get some Ella and some Billie instead.

Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing that made the piano work in the video is that she then goes to the prison. There's a feeling like the first half is this immaculately constructed life which is all a lie, that she's trapped in that netherworld between where she comes from and who she wants to be.

Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As opposed to "A Walk In The Park" by the Nick Straker Band which is greatest single ever made, apart from other ones.

Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i met the guy who playrd cmmdr straker in ufo when pissed and said'fuckin hell it's cmmdr straker' - poor chap

sterling is right - honey to tha b waz klassik

, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sterling: I remember the second half of the "Fallin'" video now, which as you say might go some way towards redeeming the first half.

Something about the titles of the other two Keys songs he mentions, neither of which I've heard, convinces me I'll dislike them. Strange, that.

Robin Carmody, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, those aren't Alicia, the first is Jill Scott (actual title is "A Long Walk" & you'll know it by all thos "tion" rhymes). The second is her. And it is irredeemable by any video.

Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)


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