New Kells
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
God-damn.
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Comments
I don't know--this one is all right, but doesn't have that lagniappe that separates primo Kells material from these little genre exercises he drops every now and again to ingratiaite himself to the grandparents of the girls he still hasn't quit pushing up on. For the most part, I feel about this how I felt about that "When A Woman Loves" shit: Once I get past how good it feels to hear something like this song, I realize that I probably won't be wanting to hear this particular song again any time soon.
And on some picky shit: One, it could just be the youtubes, but the mix on this is all fucked up, with the vocals way too frontal. And two, that shit he's doing with altering his register to try to sound like two or three different singers is only working about sixty percent as well as he seems to think it is. Distracting as fuck.
Stepping In The Name Of Hate in 2012,
James
Now, whenever I think of Kells, I think of him peeing into a teenage girl's face.
Sorry.
He did it, doe.
You owe me a new keyboard without coffee spat all over it.
Even if this track is doo-doo, surely it's a good thing if the mainstream is re-introduced to this style.
I'm with Jimster, doe. Don't want to hear about what R.Kelly is sharing, or with who, or what, or how.
^this
I agree.
More bassline pleez.
I hope to be dancing to it sometime soon lol
HOF material
And you didn't even quote the very best bit;
Pretty much the reason I stick around.
I get what James is saying, though, and I think this kind of thing would sound a whole lot more arch coming from someone with less of a legitimate claim to proper "soul man" credentials than Kells. That said, it's still somewhat true of When A Woman Loves that, once you take a break from admiring the obvious craft and care that's gone into it, it's a little difficult not to think of Prince Akeem wandering through Queens singing To Be Loved while getting pelted with shit from the upper tenement windows. Which isn't to say it's not a good song; it is. But if D'Angelo's decided he'd rather be wandering around Europe doing David Bowie and Soundgarden covers, and with Raphael Saadiq every bit as likely to make a record that sounds like Tony Joe White as David Ruffin nowadays, then there's clearly still some sort of an opening for somebody who fancies themselves as The Throwback Guy.
I like the simplicity of this though. Even with Kells' insanely precise vocal production, it's still kind of direct and uncomplicated. I also like how he seems to have wound his neck in with all that "I'm your sexosaurus" codswallop for a few minutes. Obviously a big part of what has made him so compelling in the past are those moments where he combines immaculately crafted music with the most overtly sexual and often downright crass imagery imaginable. I mean, I really do struggle to picture a world in which some of the wilder shit Kells comes out with actually works, but I guess I'm just not that kind of guy. In the light of recent events, perhaps it's finally occurred to him that it might be a little unwise to cultivate an artistic persona which depicts you in an almost perpetual state of arousal. Or, at least, wiser to suggest that you're capable of taking a breather now and again.
I've heard others make Duder's observation that it owes something to Barry White, and there's the odd similarity when it comes to the phrasing. In most respects, though, it's a fairly regular Kells four-chorder, nowhere near as ornate or as rhythmically detailed as its likely equivalent in Barry's repertoire; if anything, it's just a step on (no pun intended) from something like Happy People. It's no less sweet for any of that, though. Its strength lies in just that comparative absence of fussiness that'd make it ideal raw material for a early-to-mid-90s-vintage MAW workout, complete with banging SP1200 drums and ridiculous Gene Perez triplets all over the place. Somebody needs to make that happen.