There’s a determinedly retro feel to much of Raphael Saadiq’s new album. The cover shows Saadiq in roll-neck sweater with drums and bass accompaniment playing at a party full of beehive hairdo’s, and preppies in bow ties. And much of the music harks back to the early Motown and Stax days. Tracks like ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Radio’ and ‘Stone Rollin’ evoke that primitive minimalism with Saadiq playing all the instruments and singing all the vocals. These tracks offer one, or two chord guitar riffs, that barely amount to tunes in any sense whatsoever. The drumming is functional at best. Saadiq calls and responds to his own lyrics, in ways that evoke Chuck Berry, Sam and Dave, almost the retro chic of Sha-na-na. The lyrics are also throwbacks and throw away; ‘‘See that girl is so fast/She’s rollin, smokin’ and makin’ cash’. Saadiq must be one of the few contemporary artists in pop, let alone R’n’B, to resuscitate the mellotron; once the stock of prog rockers such as King Crimson. The mellotron is used to great effect to provide flute noodlings against the strident guitar of ‘Over You’.
The title track is a funky blues with rasping harmonica interjections, with a slow guitar break that’s determined not to draw attention to itself. On ‘Day Dreams’, Saadiq recreates a shuffling doowop chorus, with a falsetto line and plucked bass that evokes spats and sharp suits, and the mischievous chorus from Belleville Rendezvous.
The last four tracks are more typically the kind of thing that had Saadiq called ‘the new Quincy Jones’. ‘Just don’t’ forms a kind of bridge between the minimal and the highly orchestrated. It starts with RS and a simple clunky guitar and band riff, which then moves into more orchestrated and modulated second half. And the final track is ‘The Answer’; a folk-y, swirling string, flutes and French horn number. This is slightly over blown, with a ‘nice’ melody that wouldn’t frighten your mother. The recent live version with the gritty Hammond captures its essence a bit better. However, the stand-out track is ‘Movin’ Down the line’ with its sumptuous string and brass arrangements, catchy bass and guitar, and infinitely hummable tune. This is open-top driving /barbeque/late club music; Motown at its easiest and catchiest, in which Saadiq shows exactly how to write and deliver a song.
Ian Pople