For years, soul music has been flirting with the past. The last decade saw the fast rise and equally fast fall of neo-soul, the niche carved out by new age revivalists like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and D’Angelo. Badu, who presided over the movement with her debut album ‘Baduizm’, has been a restless custodian and her remarkable experimentation continues to push musical boundaries, evading any easy classification. Jill Scott got happy, which, as Alanis Morrisette demonstrates, is never a good thing for a singer who plies the emotional depths of human sadness; for his part, D’Angelo has simply faded into the background, torso and all.
Neo-soul’s flame still flickers on occasion, finding adherents in R&B artists like Music Soulchild, Alicia Keys and John Legend. More recently, the blues and jazz-tinged music of Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone and Duffy, has been used to herald the emergence of the retro-soul.
All this labelling is frustrating. And suspicious: if neo-soul is premised on “soul” being retro, then isn’t retro-soul redundant? Luckily, the music always speaks for itself, as Raphael Saadiq shows on his new album, ‘The Way I See It’, where soul’s courtship with the past is fully consummated. Saadiq, the former Tony! Toni! Toné! front man, channels the Motown-era sound of groups like the Temptations, the Four Tops and the Supremes with occasional forays into the territory later mapped out by The Delfonics and The Stylistics, all of which basically lay the foundation for today’s soul music.
Saadiq, who sounds like a Smoky Robinson/ Stevie Wonder hybrid with a just a dash of Marvin Gaye, is a sometimes lover man, sometimes motivational speaker, all the time soul-stirring firebrand. The roles are not exclusive of each other, as any one familiar with the soul music canon would know. On the album’s first single, “Love That Girl”, Saadiq does his best Smoky over a limber bass-guitar melody that bounces along quite pleasantly. In his smooth tenor, he coos and woos in your ear, but these are hardly sweet nothings.
There is a gradual shift, an escalation from uncertainty on songs like “Sure Hope You Mean It”, to seductive on “Just One Kiss” with Joss Stone, playful sensuality on “Let’s Take A Walk” and finally all out love-struck on “Staying in Love”. The common thread that ties the songs together is the rhythm, fast and upbeat in the oh-so optimistic Motown-tradition. On ballads like “Calling” and “Oh Girl” Saadiq slows down. “Oh Girl” is a remarkable song, which sounds like it might have come from an old record that was dusted off recently. It falls squarely within the body of work produced by The Delfonics, The Stylistics and The Chiites, in the late 60s. In particular, it recalls The Stylistics’ “Betcha By Golly Wow.” On songs like “Keep Marchin’” and “Big Easy” Saadiq has important things to say. And he does it in brash, rousing style. “Big Easy”, which features The Infamous Young Spoodie and the Rebirth Brass Band, he sings, “Somebody tell me, what’s going on/They say the levy’s broke and my baby’s gone,” an impassioned though restrained Katrina lament. Here, Saadiq wisely gives way to band; the horns are agitated and audacious, the real vehicles for the anger in the song.
Although all the songs are good, the sudden shifts between love and social anthems are abrupt, and interrupt the mood of the album. One major departure from the soul classics is the relatively condensed length of the songs, which sometimes end just as they seem to be getting started, a defect that live performances should undoubtedly correct.
Call Saadiq’s music neo, retro–or whatever you will–but one thing is for sure, it’s great.
