(i'm at work with no access to zips or rars or even mp3s. but this isn't too difficult to find elsewhere.)

lee fields is a funk/soul singer. my world is the record for everyone who thought last year's raphael saadiq album was a bit underwhelming. fields' voice is a fucking monster. his 70s output speaks for itself. i think a lot of people deep into funk/soul are in on the secret. he's worked with martin solveig recently and broken out a bit in across the atlantic. but, hopefully, this new record makes him a name on this side too.

riyl: sharon jones, raphael saadiq, al green, the delfonics, arthur conley, etc.

if he sings with the balls that saadiq lacks, i may like this

I haven't heard this album but I have heard some of his 70's output. I kind of throw him in the same category as Sharon Jones. Yeah, he's good but he's in the bottom 2% of soul/funk I own and I own a lot so it sits unlistened to. I would go see him live though as most of the 98% i like more are dead and buried.

i did finally get a chance to check this out earlier this week, and it was alright. i'll give it a few more listens, but ultimately i can't see pulling this one out in favor of some classic stuff.

you see, that is the problem with being a fan of modern funk/soul. more than any other genre i can think of, it is always being compared to its past. critics bomb it. consumers more or less bomb it. like, how the fuck can we compare a soul album in 2009 with one from 1964? of course it's not as good when set beside sam cooke or james brown or stax or all that early 70s southern soul groove that smokes.

i mean, why even listen to anything that isn't the pinnacle of its genre? everything's been done better before, right? so why don't we do this with other genres?

but, still, i think this record really cooks.

oh i agree with you, and there are modern funk acts out there that i do like. my problem is most of it sounds waaay too clean, over-produced, etc. it even affects some of the "big names" with their comeback albums too (newer ones by candi staton, bettye lavette come to mind)

also, i think personally for me, my problem with modern funk is that i'm still discovering some of the "classics" now....

yeah. that e-stone line goes for a lot of people i know. you get into soul or funk through the early stuff that is by far the tops. but you realize everything you're listening to is 40+ years old. so you search out something new. you pick that up. but alongside what you've been listening to, it doesn't stack up at all.

and it's unfortunate because i do think there're a lot of worthwhile records out there. it's just that funk and soul are by nature so limiting in sound that no one's really doing much to push them. or, if they do, they're dumped on for fucking around with the sound too much. so everyone kinda stays in their wheelhouse and steals from the greats, which keeps people going back to the greats anyway.

We can compare it with those because its in competition with any record that scratches the same itch. And it fails miserably in comparison.

As far as other genres, I do the same thing in every genre. I want to own and listen to the stuff I like best in every genre without regard to how new or old it is. As a result, most of the stuff I listen to in every genre is from before 1980. Jazz and Soul just happen to be genres where I find the greatest quality drop off. I think you also have to recognize that there's a greater appetite for rock on this board than soul or jazz. If I cared to own thousands of soul records, I might consider Sharon Jones or Lee Fields more worth my time.

I think artists like Raphael Saddiq bring the comparisons upon themselves by mimicking the old stuff without adding anything unique. And I think any band in any genre that doesn't try to inject something new invites the same unfavorable comparisons to the old - it's why I've never been able to get into the Black Crowes, for example, even though they should be right in my wheelhouse.


And I'll offer a half-hearted argument that Sharon Jones is verging on a 21st century sound, and Lee Fields seems to be trying. They've both got some work ahead of them though.

That makes some intuitive sense to me and I like the Black Crowes comparison. If Black Crowes played venues of the same size that Sharon Jones plays, I'd be interested in seeing them live too but I have no interest in their records. I'm not sure what's new about Sharon Jone's sound, but I know it was a half-hearted defense of her. I just think Jones and Fields have a little more skill and attitude than Saddiq does. I'd put them a cut above, I just don't care to listen to their records much.

Saddiq and Lee are definitely trying for different things, but succeed and fail in similar ways.

I love this album and listened to it a lot on my road trip. They actually put it in the "freebies" bin at the radio station...sillies.

This thread is why I come to this board. I can't even weigh in except to say that my father (very into music, but admittedly a Baby Boomer musically) and I scrap about the blending of musical threads in new music, I scream that new bands can reach for/occasionally find an X-factor stew of influences and create something new from the old...and even if he agrees that indeed he sees the influences, he can't get past how the old stuff sounded enough to enjoy the new twists.
When I listen to old soul, it's so wonderful its hard to like new stuff, perhaps becuase it doesn't have that shiny forehead grit that I identify as "real" aka "authentic" soul.

I feel like most of these arguments can be made about any type of music that is no longer popular in a chart sense.

you can't improve on classic soul, blues, ska, jazz, etc...

and I'm totally inclined to agree with this. I can't think of any examples of the last 20 years that have actually sounded better than the original classics of these genres. However, this can't be argued for classic rock. Is that because rock has expanded and mutated more to provide something viable to some people? Are the formulas for the above genres so fixed that it can't really improve in our (or at least my) eyes/ears?

yeah, i think you're onto something there. genres like soul and funk really branched out a lot in about a 15/20-year period ending in the mid-70s. a hell of a lot was explored and then it just kinda died. there aren't a whole lot of essential albums past, say, 1977. but people still love making the music, so a handful of good albums come out each year. yet it seems most are met with general indifference, for reasons noted elsewhere in thread.

I agree in logic. I can't say for myself that I know this genre's history as some of you all, but Lee, Sharon , Dap-Tone "whatever" is a good retro for an introduction of that period. I think Raphael was a little step forward in modernizing the sound while the others stayed more true or gritty to it. I think they found an audience, but to keep it . . . "got some work ahead of them." You gotta admit the resurgence and interest is hopeful considering the lack of it for so long.

this was an interesting thread. also, i'm looking for some new school soul.

Have you ever heard of the group Foreign Exchange? They are doing some interesting things on their album "Leave it All Behind". It was one of my favorites from last year.

is that the Norwegian guy? I've only heard the more rap-oriented stuff with Phonte.

FWIW I'd also look at that Mayer Hawthorne and any Soul Investigators stuff you can find.

Yeah it's Phonte from Little Brother and a Dutch producer named Nicolay. They do have some elements of Rap but their most recent album leans mostly toward R&B/Soul. Phonte has a surprisingly nice voice and Nicolay's production is not something your gonna heard your local radio station. It's certainly a lot different from the Motown influenced stuff that Saadiq and Mayer Hawthorne doing now.

i saw this guy tonight. about 2/3rd of the set was my world stuff and the rest was older. "she's a lovemaker" killed.

the band sounded amazing, as often happens when dap kings are involved. one of the other guys is from antibalas afrobeat orchestra, but i didn't know anyone else. fields sang a few songs in different keys and there were a couple arrangements sped up or slowed down from the recorded versions, but it was mostly carbon copied with some extra licks tossed in. recommended.

recently discovered the latest album. enjoying it quite a bit.