Violinist and now singer Alexvndria starts off her debut EP, Hopeless Romantic, with violin plucks and string arrangements in a brief instrumental (“Epigraph”) to make you think this is going to be an avant-garde jazz album.
Nope, it’s an EP of stunning love songs. “He Loves Me” is a lush cover of Jill Scott‘s song with a full orchestra and a jazz trio backing her. “Silly Me” (with great, subtle jazz drumming from Drew Marsh) was recorded while Alexvndria was touring with The Broadway Sinfonietta, and the whole EP was recorded over four months and in six different cities. The song has Alexvndria lamenting all the time she’s wasted waiting on a lover to finally commit.
“Stay” is a similar theme, with Alexvndria waiting for her lover to even just say, “I love you.” (“I might have gave my heart too soon, but I’m dying to know.”). You hear tracks like this and wonder, “How has she not been singing this whole time?” Her voice is perfect for neo-soul and someone needs to hire her to sing on their latest trip-hop or house music project. The EP’s closer, “Twilight,” started with a bass solo and, according to a quote from Alexvndria in the liner notes I received, “Before I knew it, I was calling up a friend to improvise over it and recorded the whole song in my living room.”
The EP ends with a quick fade out, like a lover rushing out the door to make it to their flight back across the country. You want more, and part of you knows you might not get more, but you’re willing to wait and you’ll always have the memories.
The cover of Betty Davis‘ second album, They Say I’m Different, shows her in a futuristic outfit with Egyptian themes, wicked boots, and holding clear glass or plastic rods for some reason. She looks like she just emerged from a spaceship designed by Sun Ra. It’s fitting because she, and this album, were so far ahead of their time (1974) that she might as well have been from another galaxy and a distant century.
Starting with the sexy, slithery, smoky “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him,” Davis curls up next to you like a frisky cat that might nuzzle you or bite you at any moment as she sings about her plans to seduce a new lover. Mike Clark, a frequent collaborator with Herbie Hancock, puts down such a tight beat that it feels like it might burst. As if that opener wasn’t sexy enough, along comes the BDSM classic “He Was a Big Freak,” which is rumored to be about her ex-husband, Miles Davis. Whomever she sings about enjoyed Betty being a geisha, talking dirty, and being whipped with a turquoise chain. Davis’ cousin, Larry Johnson, rolls out perhaps his funkiest bass groove on the record. A nice touch is a slight reverb on Davis’ vocals now and then, reflecting the song’s subject going into his subspace meditation.
She’s already missing that freaky lover on “Your Mama Wants Ya Back,” which has a groove that has probably inspired more post-punk bands than we could count. “Don’t Call Her No Tramp” takes aim at one of Davis’ favorite subjects – her critics. The Rhodes organ riffs on it are sassy and so hot they might’ve burned the player’s fingers. Speaking of hot grooves, “Git in There” could set a dance floor on fire.
The title track has Davis looking back at her youth and the musicians who formed her tastes (i.e., T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Chuck Berry), paying them respect in phat funk currency. Davis uses the structure of blues on “70s Blues,” but spins it into 70s funk and soul. “I’m so tired of the blues,” she sings. “The blues have taken over, and they’re runnin’ my soul.” You can feel the grind of the 1970s in her voice and the solid riffs of her entire band behind her. The album ends with the jazzy, smooth “Special People,” in which Davis her lover that she’s going to give him everything she has.
The reissue of the album also includes rough mixes of “He Was a Big Freak,” “Don’t Call Her No Tramp,” “Git in There,” and “70s Blues.” Even these “rough” mixes are smoother than anything else you’ll hear today.
The whole album is like that. Davis’ whole catalogue is like that.
Judging by the music on Betty Davis‘ fourth album, Is It Love or Desire, I’d also say it’s both.
Larry Johnson‘s (one of two cousins to Ms. Davis on the record) opening bass alone on the opening title track is so damn funky that it grabs you by the shoulders, hips, or possibly nipples and doesn’t let go of you. Fred Mills‘ little keyboard touches are excited delights behind Davis’ vocals on “It’s So Good” as she sings about how good love is with her lover as the rest of the band mixes disco and metal.
“A man should not cry over one woman,” the band, and mostly Mills sings, on “Whorey Angel,” with Davis portraying a woman is both a fabulous lover and a nurturer. The track has a gospel-like quality to it that’s outstanding. “Crashin’ from Passion” was supposed to be the title track to the album, but it ended up being the title track of her final album. This version of the song is slower, sultrier, and more dangerous, like you just walked into a room and found a panther staring at you from the door on the other side.
“When Romance Says Goodbye” has Davis confessing to a friend (or the world in general) about the woes of past relationships in a stripped down ballad. “Bottom of the Barrel” has Davis and her band getting funky and calling to “take off that disco, get into what you’re hearin’.” You can easily envision Davis dancing in the rural Louisiana studio where the album was recorded as he lays down her vocal tracks.
“Ain’t no business like show business, that’s why we stay broke all the time!” Davis proclaims on “Stars Starve, You Know” – a fun skewering of Davis’ critics, record industry bigwigs, DJs who wouldn’t play her records, and people who think being a touring musician is an easy gig. On “Let’s Get Personal,” Davis invites you to do just that, whispering / seducing from one side of your speakers while the band plays on the other as if she’s beckoning you from the other side of the room.
Mills’ keyboards bring a little early synthwave to “Bar Hoppin’,” a fun song about Davis’ love of good drink and the company that often surrounds it. Nickie Neal, Jr. (Davis’ other cousin) lays down a beat that is so solid and perfect that it’s easy to think it’s simple and easy. When you really listen to it, however, you realize how in the groove it is, and that skill does not come easy. The closer, “For My Man,” has Davis again seducing us as she purrs out all the gifts (physical and material) she’d give to a man who treated her well. Listen for the violin by none other than blues legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
The only bad thing about this album is that, for reasons that are still murky due to conflicting stories, Island Records never released it. It was shelved for thirty years. Some say it was because the studio where it was recorded was never paid. Others, including Davis herself, say it was because Island wanted to release one of her songs, “Talkin’ Trash,” as a single without her approval, and Island shelved the album in retaliation. The record went mostly forgotten, and was practically an urban legend until it was rediscovered in the early 2000s and, thankfully, released into the light before Davis’ death.
It’s all-killer, no-filler. Davis mentioned how it sounds contemporary in today’s times, and she was right. The themes are still being discussed, the music is just as fresh, and Davis’ vocals are still powerful.
That cover pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Betty Davis: sexy, powerful, elegant, and yet ready to tussle at any time. It’s also somewhat of a bittersweet photo, as Crashin’ from Passion would be the last album she ever recorded before mostly disappearing into obscurity for decades and later dying February 09, 2022. She at least learned that her music had been rediscovered and that she was hailed as a Queen of Funk and influence to many.
Crashin’ was recorded with a powerhouse backing band of jazz and funk heavyweights, including The Pointer Sisters, Martha Reeves, Alphonse Mouzon, and Carlos Morales. Davis didn’t have much love for the recording industry by this point, as she’d been dropped by her previous label and the last album she’d recorded for them, Is It Love or Desire? was shelved…for thirty years. She moved to Hollywood, found some new funding for a new record, and put out the most diverse album of her career.
“Quintessence of Hip” starts off the record with a bold, funky ripper and Davis proclaiming that she “can be cooler than cool,” shouting out some of her influences (John Coltrane, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and others), and also acknowledging her time in the spotlight might be ending (as a result of her decisions and no one else’s). “She’s a Woman” has Davis exploring dark disco and synth music. I would’ve gone nuts for a whole album of stuff like this. Mouzon’s drumming catches your attention right away on “No Good at Falling in Love,” and Davis’ vocals won’t let your attention escape as she effortlessly keeps up with him (or is it the other way around?).
The playful jazz of “Tell Me a Few Things” sounds like it could’ve been recorded yesterday, and it’s great to hear Davis being frisky (and the xylophone beats on this are a great touch). Just when you think you might know where this album is going, along comes “I’ve Danced Before” – a calypso-rock track. “You Make Me Feel So Good” is the type of track that Davis always delivers so well – a slow jam that practically makes you and your lover’s clothes fall off your bodies.
Chuck Rainey‘s bass groove on “I Need a Whole Lot of Love” is so tight and solid that it could hold down a rocket on a launch pad. “Hangin’ Out in Hollywood” is a fun tale of her new home, and “All I Do Is Think of You” is a solid disco track that should’ve been tearing up clubs in the late 1970s…but more on that later. Davis and her band go nuts on the title track, with everyone clicking together in perfection. Morales’ guitar sizzles throughout it and Rainey and Mouzon sound like they’re having a competition to out-funk the other. The closer is the soft, lush love / break-up song “You Take Me for Granted,” a poignant title as it turns out…
…because, as mentioned earlier, Davis disappeared after this record. She and the album’s mixers butted heads, her father died during all of this, and then Crashin’ was shelved, her second album in a row, for fifteen years until it was released without her permission to CD in the 1990s. Thankfully, this remastered edition had her full approval and she was able to see it (and Is It Love or Desire? for that matter) find her fans.
It’s a crime that Davis’ last two records went unheard for so long since they are so good. She didn’t have a bad album in her catalogue, and could’ve been packing houses, owning stages, experimenting with other genres, and being a coveted, cherished collaborator on others albums for the rest of her life. Instead, thanks to the record industry taking her for granted, she said, “Nah.” and walked away from all of it.
Do yourself a favor and discover her if you don’t know her.
Next month, Busty and the Bass will release their newly announced album, Forever Never Cares, a record which sounds, at once, of a bygone era and completely modern. They recently shared lead single, “Give Me A Smile” ft. Son Little, and today they are sharing a new preview of the record, a track called “Never Get Enough“, led by the smokey vocals of ascendant soul singer Katie Tupper.
The sensual R&B single is an emphatic ballad about the conditional longing and desire for the one you love: ‘We got less time than you think we do / Forever ain’t long enough’ Katie’s sultry voice soars throughout the song, while building budding tension until the band swoops in with an anthemic coda.
“The words and vocal melodies came relatively quickly to me once I heard the track the guys had made,” says Tupper. “I knew I wanted a lot of vocal layers and harmonies to hold their own against the lush production that comes with a busty song. I wanted the lyrics to be classic and soulful and the idea of never getting enough of someone even if you could spend forever with them seemed right.”
“For me, I’m playing off of Katie’s theme of ‘forever ain’t long enough’,” says founding member Alistair Blu. “While her theme is referencing a lover who’s eternal presence isn’t enough, my lyrical themes relate to the broader concepts of eternity and forever-ness (hence where the album gets its name, Forever Never Cares) and the desire to let go of clinging and attachment.”
MORE ABOUT FOREVER NEVER CARES For the Canadian-American soul-jazz collective Busty and the Bass, collaboration has always been at the forefront of their music. Formed at McGill University in Montreal over a decade ago, the group is now scattered across four North America cities from coast to coast. Yet, with a collaborative spirit at the heart of their third studio album, Forever Never Cares, the members have never been more connected.
Over the years, the group has collaborated with legendary artists George Clinton, Macy Gray, Earth Wind & Fire, Slum Village, and exciting new voices like Polaris Music Prize winners Cadence Weapon and Pierre Kwenders. Most recently, the group dropped a mini-album with Philadelphia poet and rapper STS. Despite such a strong history of partnerships, Forever Never Cares reshaped the band’s creative formula and redefined how they worked together a decade into their career.
After a founding member and primary songwriter left the band in 2022, the collective used the opportunity to re-approach their creative process for the first time in years. Songs would be brought to the group from individual members or smaller formations of two or three members writing together. Interestingly, more voices involved in the songwriting resulted in the group’s most refined output to date.
Two previous studio albums, Uncommon Good (2017) and Eddie (2020), saw the band experiment with genres effortlessly changing styles song to song, from soul to funk to pop.
Forever Never Cares finds the collective both broadening and distilling their influences into a unified sound that is entirely their own. This is due in large part to founding member Christopher Vincent who engineered and mixed the album. Vincent found a sonic language that would compliment all of the disparate genres being stacked atop one another.
With soul and R&B as the album’s cornerstone, the record is sprinkled with cross-genre explorations. From the indie rock-inflected uptempo singles “All The Things I Couldn’t Say To You” and “Wandering Lies,” to slow-burn ballads like “Give Me A Smile” and “Never Get Enough,” to the celebratory pop-funk of “Starstruck” and “No Angels,” a touch of 70s singer-songwriter on “Smoke and the Pine” and “Holiday Drive,” and the psychedelic jazz explorations of “Far From Here” and “No Self Control” featuring saxophonist Terrace Martin, a frequent collaborator of Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Davisʼ self-titled debut — an electrifying artistic statement that launched one of modern musicʼs most revolutionary figures. To celebrate the visionary singer, songwriter, producer, and fashion iconʼs broadly influential career, acclaimed reissue label Light in the Attic is revisiting four essential titles from The Queen of Funkʼs catalog: Betty Davis (1973), They Say Iʼm Different (1974), Is It Love Or Desire? (recorded in 1976, released in 2009), as well as the first-ever vinyl release of Crashinʼ From Passion, which captures Davisʼ final 1979 sessions. All four tiles were produced in close collaboration with Davis, who sadly passed away in 2022.
Betty Davis, They Say Iʼm Different, and Crashinʼ From Passion were remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). For the aforementioned three titles, the accompanying booklets include a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Davisʼ close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last-ever interviews. They Say Iʼm Different also includes a fold-out 24×36 poster. Is It Love Or Desire? was remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The album includes liner notes from journalist, DJ, and professor Oliver Wang.
Each album will be available on CD, black wax, and in a variety of exclusive color variants. All titles will be released on August 25th. Read below for more information on Davis and the individual albums.
Far ahead of her time, Queen of Funk Betty Davis (1944 – 2022) defied the limits of gender, race, and genre during her all-too-short career. She innovated with her space-age blend of funk, R&B, and blues and enraptured audiences with her raw and powerful vocals – then shocked (and awed) them with her provocative, sexually liberated lyrics. Unapologetic and independent, Davis smashed glass ceilings with gusto. To count a few, she was among the first Black models to grace the covers of Seventeen and Glamour, while later, she became the first Black woman to write, produce, and arrange her own albums.
When Davis released her self-titled debut in 1973, she was already a force in New York, London, and Los Angeles. She had opened one of NYCʼs most vibrant private nightclubs, penned songs for The Chambers Brothers and The Commodores, collaborated with Hugh Masekela, and inspired her then-husband Miles Davis to create the roots for jazz fusion on Bitches Brew. While she received numerous offers from record labels in those early years,
Davis also recognized the power of retaining control over her music. Fiercely DIY, she eventually signed a contract with Woodstock organizer Michael Langʼs Just Sunshine imprint, under which she released Betty Davis (1973) and They Say Iʼm Different (1974). In 1975, she made her major label debut under Island Records with Nasty Gal. Davis would go on to record two more albums—Is It Love Or Desire? and Crashinʼ From Passion—both of which remained unreleased for decades.
Oen relegated to cult figure status and frequently misunderstood, Davisʼ album recording career spanned less than a decade. While her music earned critical acclaim and respect from peers, it was regularly banned or disregarded, due to its sexual nature. As a Black woman in an industry controlled by white men, Davis found herself in a constant battle for creative control, oen to the detriment of her career. Never given the chance to succeed commercially, a disillusioned Davis retired from the spotlight in 1980.
From a modern lens, the path that Davis forged can be traced clearly throughout the decades, traversed by those who pushed the needle farther and fought for equality in the industry. Many of musicʼs brightest stars have counted Davis as an influence, including Prince, Erykah Badu, and Janelle Monae, while rappers like Ice Cube, Method Man, and Talib Kweli have all sampled her work. In recent years, Davis has captured a new generation of fans, thanks to the use of her songs in such series as Mixed-ish, Girlboss, Pistol, and Orange Is the New Black. In 2017, she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Betty: They Say I’m Different.
Here we are at the top five albums I reviewed in 2022. It was a great year for music, and these are what stood out for me among all the good stuff out there.
As I’ve mentioned before, 2022 was a great year for electronic music, and this EP from Jacques Greene topped my list of that kind of music. It mixes house, drum and bass, ambient, and a bit of synth wave into a luscious brew.
This reissue of classic gospel funk tracks by The Staples Jr. Singers is stunning. The amount of groove and friskiness in these songs is almost overwhelming. The instrumentation and harmonizing are outstanding, and there’s enough soul for two churches.
This is the best post-punk album I heard all year. Everything on it is razor sharp: the wit, the guitar angles, the grooves, the drum sounds, and the slightly snarled tongue-in-cheek vocals.
The Black Angels‘ new album was a great return for them. It explores the stress of modern times through walls of distorted guitars, reverb-laden vocals, powerful drums, and mind-warping sound. The Black Angels have yet to put out a bad record, but this one somehow set the bar even higher for psych-bands to follow.
#1: A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You
A Place to Bury Strangers came back with a new lineup and some of Oliver Ackermann‘s most revealing lyrics about the end of friendships, loneliness, grief, over-reliance on technology, and the overall anxiety everyone’s been feeling since 2019. Ackermann put it all out there and walloped us with more honesty and distortion that you can almost stand.
As if Rochelle Jordan‘s excellent album, Play with the Changes, wasn’t cool enough, now she’s released Play with the Changes Remixed, which is just what the title implies – a full remix of the album by some of the top producers and DJs in today’s music scenes.
&ME‘s remix of “Situation” ups the synth-bass to levels that make you go, “Oh, damn…That’s hot.” DJ Minx turns “Dancing Elephants” into an after-party house jam. Sango somehow turns “Got Em” into a sexier track. KLSH speeds up “Count It” into a playful cut that borders on industrial music. Kaytranada bumps up the funk on “All Along.”
Kingdom softens “Nothing Left,” almost putting us into a happy dream so Machinedrum can wake us with wicked beats and happy thoughts to start our day on the remix of “Lay.” LSDXOXO remixes “Love U Good” into a bit of a dancehall bumper that will have your hips moving. Sinistarr, meanwhile, turns “Next 2 U” into a full-on mid-1990s rave track that is only missing a strobe light and whistles blown by scantily clad, somewhat dehydrated people.
The Things You Say remix of “Already” is sure to fill dance floors just from the bouncy bass and bartender-shaking-a-cocktail percussion. Soul Clap brings in popcorn popper drum and bass on the remix of “Broken Steel.” Byron the Aquarius sends us out on a somewhat trippy vibe with his remix of “Something” at the end of the album.
There isn’t a bad mix on here. You can slip any of these cuts into a DJ set and everyone will love you for it.
