ROBERTA FLACK (ABO#426)

ROBERTA FLACK
SOFTLY
(1969-2003)

Sure I did want to Baistophe Roberta but how hard was it to find all of her albums especially her youngest ones. I really wanted to compile this artist even if I didn't really know her complete work. In fact, I only knew her best period (1969-1975). This golden era completely fills the first CD of this chronological compilation. The second one gathers songs from 1977 to 1999. A last album, Holiday was been recorded in 2003 but was in fact a re-recording og her 1997's Christmas Album. This second period is much more smoothy and much more RNB than Soul. I'll understand you'll prefer to reduce this compilation down to the first CD... However, even if there are no real highlights in CD2, there some songs that are honestly listenable. Make your own opinion, if you want to...

Extracts :

Go Up Moses
(from Quiet Fire, 1971)


Feel Like Making Love To You
(from Feel Like Making Love, 1975)

My Roberta Flack TOP3 :
1. First Take (1969)
2. Killing Me Softly (1973)
3. Quiet Fire (1971)

My Roberta Flack BOTTOM3 :
1. Born To Love (feat. Peabo Bryson, 1983)
2. Oasis (1988)
3. The Christmas Album / Holiday (1997/2003)

ERYKAH BADU (ABO #388)

ERYKAH BADU
SOUTHERN GIRL
(1997-2010)

She grew up listening to '70s soul and '80s hip-hop, but Erykah Badu drew more comparisons to Billie Holiday upon her breakout in 1997, after the release of her first album, Baduizm. The grooves and production on the album are bass-heavy R&B, but Badu's languorous, occasionally tortured vocals and delicate phrasing immediately removed her from the legion of cookie-cutter female R&B singers. A singer/songwriter responsible for all but one of the songs on Baduizm, she found a number 12 hit with her first single, "On & On," which pushed the album to number two on the charts.
Born Erica Wright in Dallas in 1971, Badu attended a school of the arts and was working as a teacher and part-time singer in her hometown when she opened for D'Angelo at a 1994 show. D'Angelo's manager, Kedar Massenburg, was impressed with the performance and hooked her up with the singer to record a cover of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell duet "Precious Love." He also signed Badu to his recently formed Kedar Entertainment label, and served as producer for Baduizm, which also starred bassist Ron Carter and members of hip-hop avatars the Roots on several tracks. The first single, "On & On," became a number one R&B hit in early 1997, and Baduizm followed it to the top of the R&B album charts by March. Opening for R&B acts as well as rap's Wu-Tang Clan, Erykah Badu stopped just short of number one on the pop album charts in April. Her Live album followed later in the year.
In 2000 she returned with her highly anticipated second studio album, Mama's Gun, which was co-produced by Badu, James Poyser, Bilal, and Jay Dee and contained the hit single "Bag Lady." Worldwide Underground, a loose affair billed as an EP despite being longer than many full-lengths, was released in 2003. Her next step, 2008's New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, was a heavy and abstract release featuring collaborations with the members of Sa-Ra and Georgia Anne Muldrow; it reached number two on the Billboard 200 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, looser and more playful than Pt. 1, followed in 2010. (allmusic)
(Thanks to our new collaborator [GEMY] for this one.)

RIYL:
Alicia Keys, Kelis, Me'Shell Ndegéocello

MICHAEL JACKSON (ABO#233)

MICHAEL JACKSON

THE LOST CHILD

(1971-2001)

I think noone is unaware of Michael's death last week and we couldn't let that event be ignored by our blog which is meant to be as exhaustive as possible. Of course, exhaustive does not mean anything, and we we have wondered if Michael Jackson had to be baistophed. This didn't seem to be an evidence for everybody. To my opinion, I suggested to re-listen all the albums I had from him, plus the two last ones. Even if he was a truly strange person, I must confess that I'm amazed each time I listen to his 2 best selling albums. Only to think that, in 1987, a guy who was stamped 'RNB' made songs that rocked more than any other real rock bands is simply a performance. Indeed, Jackson managed to bring black and white communities to an agreement about music. RNB or Rock ? who gives a fuck. That's simply music and we just like it.

So this was an evidence for us to baistophe Michael but it was for making a HISTORY CD1 reissue, that was uninteresting. What you will find here is, of course all is great 80s years, but also the so often forgotten great 70s Motown years and many rare tracks that are unavailable on any official CD. So we think it's a useful compilation

So let's forget all the paper and tabloids article to focus on the career. Michael Jackson had just kept being a child... a lost child.

My Michael Jackson TOP3 :

1- Thriller (1983)

2- Bad (1987)

3- Dangerous (1991)

My Michael Jackson BOTTOM3 :

1- Invincible (2001)

2- Blood On The Dance Floor (1996)

3- Ben (1972)