This album I was not impressed with at all. I am a roots fan since the ‘Illadelphia Half-life’ days, which was released way back, during the start of the roots musical career. Those were the good old days, ever since ‘Phrenology’ was released, they were turning me down. I appreciate that they need to earn money as an independent hip hop group, and I can understand that there is nothing wrong with making a few commercial releases here and there. But for me ‘The Tipping Point’, really does tip over the edge of commercial, and now you’ll hear a much blander and less inspiring side to the roots. Nevertheless, it is still a solid and professional hip hop album, creating beats that represent musical genres of jazz and soul. The intro called ‘Star/Pointro’ combines a sample from the Sly & the Family Stones track ‘Everybody Is a Star’, which is vibrant and soulful. The more modern sounding hip hop tracks are like ‘The Web’ and ‘Don’t Say Nuthin’. The beats are often repetitive, which the roots are not known for. I can play ‘Stay Cool’ over and over, which is why I find it hard to write this review. I’m sitting on the fence a bit on this one, I like it but I don’t think it’s to their full potential; they are famous for their hip hop live jams, with black thought spitting lyrics that inspire the mind, and innovate the up and coming MC to write about things in a deep and intricate fashion. ‘The Tipping Point’ doesn’t completely loose their flavour, but it does lack a sense of creative freedom. The production is tighter, and more commercially friendly, they don’t forget to jam all together, because you’ll find a lengthy session called ‘Why (What’s Goin On?), lasting 10:40 minutes. It has a nice guitar riff, an interesting groove, and it is almost like a medley, as it features other tracks. If you are surprisingly new to the roots, firstly were have you been? And secondly, this isn’t the album to buy, go back in time to albums like the one I’ve mentioned and ‘Do You Want More?!!!??!’, ‘The Roots Come Alive’, ‘Organix’, and ‘Things Fall Apart’, which features the incredible track ‘You Got Me’.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

This is probably the finest compilation of that style of soul called ‘neo’ soul. The album focuses on the independent American based neo soul artists, like ‘Eric Roberson’, ‘Ascension’, ‘Marlon Saunders’, ‘Monet’, ‘Nuwamba’ and more unique creative types, who represent the underground soul circuit impressively. Just like the artists compiled on this album it didn’t get much promotion, but the music hits the right audience, and it went down well with the fans of this special type of music. It is a record that makes the body relax all the stressful sells inside it, by the comfortable vocals that gently float on the soul driven beats. From ‘Jonz’ splendid acoustic set, to ‘Big Brooklyn Reds’ house vibe rhythms, to the fantastic group ‘Seek’, Groove Nation truly show case great independent soul music. These artists are the sand in between the stones, the stones of neo soul music being Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, and the others, and from start to finish it is a pleasure to listen to, these being the sand. ‘If’ by Heston is pleasant, Stevie Wonder type, uplifting number, while the sultry ‘The Beginning of Never’ eases the mind by Marlon Saunders. Two special female vocalists are on here such as ‘Antoinque’ and ‘Conya Doss’. ‘Sunshine’ by ‘Antoinque’ isn’t the best track from her album, it has irritating dedications running through the end, which gets tiresome, but her album ‘Introducing...’ I highly recommend. ‘Just Because’ by Ohio soul singer, ‘Conya Doss’, brings her usual sweet melodies, this time more R&B tinged unlike her debut release. ‘MothersfavoriteChild’ track ‘Simply U’ is one of my favourite numbers, with its soothing production and vocals. ‘Urban Ave 31’ was the beginning of ‘Raheem Devaughns’ musical career, and here they offer the song called ‘Heaven Help Us All’, which is enjoyable. Dome’s recording artist, ‘Andreus’ provides an okay track called ‘Mary Ann’, but the jazzier tip appealed to me on ‘Keep It Real’ by ‘Queen Aaminah’. ‘How We Were’ by the fantastic ‘Freestyle Nation’ who supported Erykah Badu during her touring period, again is chilled out and laid back USA neo soul.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

This blue-eyed soul singer is known by many fans for the song ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’, which was the first song recorded by a white soul singer to reach the black audience in the masses. However, that was almost 30 years ago, and ‘Perfect Island Nights’ is the latest you’ll hear from Bobby. He offers a professional and polished smooth jazz album, with a few ballads like ‘Crazy For Your Love’, ‘Where Is The Love’ feat Deniece Williams, ‘I Need Your Love’ and more. The man has a lot of class to his voice, which makes his sound that more captivating. Bobby Caldwell and Richard McIntosh produced this album, it is very impressive and you will not be disappointed. It’s Popular music with a difference, it emerges R&B, classic soul with a strong focus on vocals. It starts off with a song called ‘In The Afterlife’, which talks about love becoming so intense that it can “go on in the afterlife”. ‘Can I Get Over You’ is another Bobby Caldwell classic, with the typical ballad/old school production, similar to tracks like ‘My Flame’, which was a previous hit for this legendary singer. I wouldn’t pigeonhole this album as straight jazz, because it’s too smooth for that. The title track is my favourite, with its samba like vibe, ‘Perfect Island Night’. The laidback feel to this album is enjoyable, expect a lot of love songs but also songs to just chill too. ‘Rain’ has good production, as do most of the tracks from this superb album. ‘Sukiyaki (Forever)’, is an unusual track, but concentrates on love. All tracks apart from the duet are four minutes long, all with a chilled out, smooth jazz quality, with tinges of pop and samba. ‘Our Day Will Come’ is also a nice track, so over all ‘Perfect Island Night’ is another hit for all the Bobby Caldwell fans out there.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

When artists make a live recording it usually means a break down of the original tracks to an acoustic version, with an intimate MTV audience. However, Alicia Keys brings a raw live set, with musicians, backing vocalists, rappers and raga MC’s, with a full band. The energy is in the same ranks as those past performers like Aretha Franklin but the sound is still very much hers. With guest appearances from Domain Marley, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Mos Def, Common and friends. Alicia manages to include spoken word, hip hop, reggae, and just about anything funky. The highlight of the album is the last track, which has an incredible switch, from the ‘Love it or Leave It Alone’ with Mos Def and Common, to ‘Jam Rock’ with Domain Marley. It’s an instant change from the bass lines of hip-hop to the colorful rhythms of reggae. Alicia draws your attention to her performances on each song, and she definitely is a talented shinning star. ‘Wild Horses’ was originally recorded by the Rolling Stones, and Alicia Keys does a magnificent cover with Maroon 5’s lead singer Adam Levine, who provides plenty of blue eyed soul. The album starts of with a Sunday morning church vibe, with the gospel sounding acapella to the god filled lyrics, but this reaches nicely to the pumping songs of ‘Karm’ and ‘Heartburn’, both offering some fine horn sections and energy. ‘A Woman’s Worth’ has a head nodding piano part, with a Prince influence, like the ‘How Come You Don’t Call Me’ cover, which she does later on in the album. ‘Unbreakable’ is Alicia’s brand new material, and it is extremely impressive. The next two songs are beautiful piano ballads, being ‘If I Was Your Woman’ and the soul surrendering ‘If I Ain’t Got You’, for some reason her piano playing at the beginning sounds good every time, a modern day classic soul song. Raised in Brooklyn, Alicia soaked up the entire hip-hop goings on as well as the house hold names of soul, reggae, funk and the rest, which means her audiences, will be varied and the appeal is vast. This unplugged is a must have!

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

This intense jazz album is one of Meshells finest recordings to date. The tracks show her musical talents in bass and general production for jazz music. This material is for mature music listeners who enjoy the mellow grooves of an up right jazz bass or the lush chords on a fender Rhodes. With a history of impressive records like ‘Plantation Lullabies’, ‘Cookie’, ‘Bitter’ and her latest ‘Comfort Woman’, Meshell is fixing her name as an artist in the new soul music world. The line up of talented vocalists is enough to satisfy any neo soul fan, such as ‘When Did You Leave Heaven’ by Lalah Hathaway. It’s got an over all vibe of the Miles Davis ‘Bitches Brew’ CD, which is intense, expressive and passionate. The music is unquestionably wonderful and full of amazing musicians, who stay away from the light Norah Jones type jazz feel. True fan’s of Meshell NDegeocello who go way back to her first release in 1993, will understand that you cannot pin down or pigen hole someone like this lady, as she always experiments in her musical gifts by producing a different style on each record, which to me shows versatility and longevity. It will keep her old fans wanting more and new fans curious as to what her previous albums were about. Her musical ventures lie in hip hop, spoken word, reggae, dub, ska, ambient soul, soul, jazz, and so much more in her very tasteful melting pot of sounds. This record represents NDegeocello’s love for spiritual groove music, improvising over jazz and soulful talents/legends. Her influences for this record were as I mentioned earlier, Miles Davis, Kool Herc, Carl Sagan and Holy Scripture just to name a few. The general composition of the album sounds professional, complete and soul touching. Spirit Music Jamia, is definitely a deep jazz recording, which will be a landmark just like her previous albums.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]