Word: soul
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...album of wily recrimination. As with any Lovett collection, this one has its share of the funky-flaky. The opener, '(You Can Have My Girl but) Don1t Touch My Hat,' finds the Texan in a possessive frenzy about his "John B. Stetson." 'Promises,' meanwhile, is naked Lyle, skin flayed, soul raw with grief that could be whispered from a jail cell or an unquiet grave. The melody is plain, the guitar accompaniment plaintive: the song enshrouds you in its desperate beauty. "The primal emotions on 'The Road to Ensenada' -->
...similar neo-soul movement seems to be making a splash. The Haitian-American hip-hop group the Fugees scored a hit with its gritty remake of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly. The Brooklyn-based R.-and-B. duo Groove Theory, whose songs combine pure pop appeal with slightly avant-garde musical touches, received heavy airplay for its smash single Tell Me and has a new song, Keep Tryin', on the charts. Singer D'Angelo draws fans with music that adds a laid-back '90s twist to the sound of '70s soul. And a multi-act tour is being planned...
...flow will pick up over the next few weeks with three impressive neo-soul releases: seductive crooner Maxwell has an album just out called Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite; in early June singer-bassist Me'Shell NdegeOcello will come out with her second album, Peace Beyond Passion; and in July the wistfully named vocalist ambersunshower will release her debut CD, Walter T. Smith...
Each of these new albums also brings something fresh to the pop- soul formula (verse, catchy chorus, hit-a-few-high-notes- at-the-end-to-prove-you-can-sing) that anyone who has listened to pop radio for more than 10 seconds knows intimately. Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite, harking back to such great '70s theme albums as Gaye's Here, My Dear, is a song cycle that follows a single love affair from eyes-meeting-across- a-crowded-party to marriage proposal. The album's best song,...Til the Cops Come Knockin', is a lingerie-smooth tune with...
...fact, there are more than a few songs on each of these albums that fall short--ending up either not pointed enough or just plain pointless. But the occasional missteps are understandable and mostly forgivable. If you want to get back your soul, you're going to have to take risks...