Andwele Gardner, better known as Dwele is one of those singers that I've only recently begin to pay attention to. I knew of him from his collaborations with Slum Village, but I had never really given him much thought. I somewhat begin to check him out when he released "Some Kinda...." in 2005. While I liked "I think I Love U" and "Weekend Love", I thought that album had much fillers, not so much that the material was bad, but it was just a hit or miss. I really begin to pay more attention to him when he released "Sketches Of A Man".
Believe it or not, it was out of nowhere that this happened. One day I was shopping on amazon and I came across SOAM, and decided to download the album via iTunes (at this time I had not really begin using the amazon downloads), and I'm glad that I did. I thought the album showed much growth. While it had a few interludes, I do appreciate it was musical interludes and not the skit nonsense that so many artists pull to fill up their albums! He has a pretty nice rendition of "Open Your Eyes" on the album as well as another track called "Brandi" where he reunites with Slum Village. "Five Dolla Mic" is a two minute interlude that really should have been a full song. Other gems on this record include "Blow Your Mind" which should have been a full song, "If You Want To", "Love Ultra", and "Vain", "
He has recently released his latest LP called "The Greater One" which feels like Neo-Soul meets "New Jack Swing. It features appearances from Raheem Devaughn, J. Tait, and Monica Blaire. The track w/ Raheem is nice and I'm not even a Raheem fan (I like "You" but much of his stuff is rather generic IMO). Highlights of this album are"Going Leaving", "Takes 2 2 Tango","What You Gotta Do", "Obey", and "Special".
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Chrisette Summary
Recently, I came across my old Chrisette Michele "I Am" CD that I had gotten off of iTunes and decided to put it in the player. I began looking through my CD's because I wanted to add some music to my mp3 Player. As I put in in the player, unfortunately the disc was all scratched up, but I remember liking the album so much that I went and re-downloaded the album off of iTunes (new computer source), and burned it to disc. Let's just say I forgot how good that album was. She combines jazz, hip hop, and so well, so effortlessly, that one has to wonder. How the hell do you do it. She sings in a jazz style, but yet you catch collaborating with rappers like The Roots, Nasir Jones (we know him as Nas), Jay-Z, etc.
"I Am" is one of those albums that has you feeling like you are sitting in a lounge with a glass of wine watching one of those girls w/ a flower in their heads sing. The opening track "Like a Dream" is hip-hop and jazz influenced track about a guy she likes who also happens to like her but she does not know, while "Work It Out" is about the ups and downs of a relationship. "If I had my way" is a song laying out how most of us would love for a relationship to be. On tracks like "Best of Me" and "Your Joy" the production is centered around a guitar. The former is about a love gone wrong, but it's not a bitter break up track, while the latter is a daughter's ode to her father. We get a dose of neo-soul with tracks like "Good Girl", "Be Okay", and "Mr. Radio". "Golden" we get to hear her at her most passionate, while "Let's Rock" gives us a mild disco vibe where she discusses her influences. "Love is You" is a beautiful track w/ where she gets assistance from John Legend on the piano. "In this for you" is a declaration of the appreciation for smaller things while "Is this the way love feels" explorers the one of the singer's first experiences with love. The title track "I am" is an inspirational track The itunes version of the album also includes live versions of "Good Girl", "If I Had My Way" and "Golden". This was a good album for Chrisette and it was a breath of fresh air in the urban music market. Her second album on the other hand was more mainstream, but I would not say generic. It was quite different from her debut but when you have Neyo produce it, what do you expect? NOTE: I love Neyo, this is not something that I am saying in malice it just is what it is. My favorite songs were "Epiphany"[the title track], "Notebook", "What You Do", "Blame It On Me"[where she just wants out of a relationship and doesn't give a damn who blames who], "All I Ever Think About Is You", and "Porcelin Doll" (a demand to be treated like a woman and not a child). I have yet to hear third album, I'll have to try and get to that some day.
"I Am" is one of those albums that has you feeling like you are sitting in a lounge with a glass of wine watching one of those girls w/ a flower in their heads sing. The opening track "Like a Dream" is hip-hop and jazz influenced track about a guy she likes who also happens to like her but she does not know, while "Work It Out" is about the ups and downs of a relationship. "If I had my way" is a song laying out how most of us would love for a relationship to be. On tracks like "Best of Me" and "Your Joy" the production is centered around a guitar. The former is about a love gone wrong, but it's not a bitter break up track, while the latter is a daughter's ode to her father. We get a dose of neo-soul with tracks like "Good Girl", "Be Okay", and "Mr. Radio". "Golden" we get to hear her at her most passionate, while "Let's Rock" gives us a mild disco vibe where she discusses her influences. "Love is You" is a beautiful track w/ where she gets assistance from John Legend on the piano. "In this for you" is a declaration of the appreciation for smaller things while "Is this the way love feels" explorers the one of the singer's first experiences with love. The title track "I am" is an inspirational track The itunes version of the album also includes live versions of "Good Girl", "If I Had My Way" and "Golden". This was a good album for Chrisette and it was a breath of fresh air in the urban music market. Her second album on the other hand was more mainstream, but I would not say generic. It was quite different from her debut but when you have Neyo produce it, what do you expect? NOTE: I love Neyo, this is not something that I am saying in malice it just is what it is. My favorite songs were "Epiphany"[the title track], "Notebook", "What You Do", "Blame It On Me"[where she just wants out of a relationship and doesn't give a damn who blames who], "All I Ever Think About Is You", and "Porcelin Doll" (a demand to be treated like a woman and not a child). I have yet to hear third album, I'll have to try and get to that some day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)