Her single has been at 41 or 42 on the Hot 100 for the last several weeks; I'm waiting for Billboard to post its chart today to find out if she makes it into the Top 40 or falls down.
I emailed someone rumoured to be her UK PR (who I hadn't dealt with before) about a month ago enquiring about whether she'd be getting a release here - no reply so I assumed she wasn't. Watched the song hit No 1 on the US R&B chart, decided that no one with this much obvious talent who'd had that success was going to get lost behind the sofa, pitched a piece anyway. Tried the PR again and it transpires her album's being released here on the 22nd. Emailed back asking if she's coming over to do promo. Thus far, silence!
Why is it that PRs of shitty indie bands manage to constantly bombard me with unwanted information and endless CDs, but PRs of amazing artists can't even find the time to inform me of RELEASE DATES unless hassled.
Frank, I recall you comparing Need U Bad to Doo Wop a number of times.
I think Lauryn's the right touchstone, but Need U Bad is striking me as more I Used to Love Him mixed with When It Hurts so bad or something. Slower with that reggae-ish beat. But that's not quite the Lauryn button she's hitting with this. Not sure.
OH! It's The Sweetest Thing! (Sorry, I've been scrolling through my Hill trying to figure it out.)
So I've only listened to it once since I got it today, but much of this is totally ace.
Also, Call Me Guilty might be prompting a think piece on the whole woman-kills-abusive/bad-man trope in various genres (country/r&b/pop?/cell block tango). That said, the two papers I need to write this weekend will likely get in the way of any real thought on that.
After the Hurricane, Switch!, Bust Your Windows and Need U Bad were the ones that hit most immediately. Oh! And fear was interesting in a lyrically insane way that makes me happy, since all good pop stars must be at some level bonkers.
Bust Your Windows = Before He Cheats? Call Me Guilty = Gunpowder & Lead (Miranda) = Independence Day (Martina) = Joey (Grace Potter)?
More to ponder.
Where does rap fit into this? Besides Lauryn and Jean Grae and Missy I don't listen to enough chicks who rap. Jean does shit like this on occasion. Does Trina? Eve, Kim, etc.?
Haven't heard "Bust Your Windows" or "Call Me Guilty," so don't know if this is relevant, but Roxanne Shanté* once did a rap about cutting off a guy's dick and preserving it in a pickle jar.
(Alex and Lex, if you've never listened to Roxanne Shanté, you MUST click that link. When I first heard Trina I said to myself, "She's great, but she'll never come close to Shanté.")
In any event, the connection to "Doo Wop (That Thing)"** is how each song is saturated in mid-to-late-'60s reggae variations of the late-'50s early-'60s black vocal groups, though right now actually listening to the Lauryn Hill song I notice that the equivalent to "Need U Bad"'s "Ooo ooo ooos" are the horn parts not the vocal parts. But turns out that "Need U Bad" samples an actual '60s reggae cover of an actual r&b song (Cornell Campbell And The Eternals' cover of the Impressions' "Queen Of The Minstrels," both of which I link here). Also, much closer than "Doo Wop (That Thing)" to "Need U Bad" in melody and chord pattern and "ooos" and "ohs" but not in feel is
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Why is it that PRs of shitty indie bands manage to constantly bombard me with unwanted information and endless CDs, but PRs of amazing artists can't even find the time to inform me of RELEASE DATES unless hassled.
Reply
I think Lauryn's the right touchstone, but Need U Bad is striking me as more I Used to Love Him mixed with When It Hurts so bad or something. Slower with that reggae-ish beat. But that's not quite the Lauryn button she's hitting with this. Not sure.
OH! It's The Sweetest Thing! (Sorry, I've been scrolling through my Hill trying to figure it out.)
Reply
Also, Call Me Guilty might be prompting a think piece on the whole woman-kills-abusive/bad-man trope in various genres (country/r&b/pop?/cell block tango). That said, the two papers I need to write this weekend will likely get in the way of any real thought on that.
After the Hurricane, Switch!, Bust Your Windows and Need U Bad were the ones that hit most immediately. Oh! And fear was interesting in a lyrically insane way that makes me happy, since all good pop stars must be at some level bonkers.
Reply
Call Me Guilty = Gunpowder & Lead (Miranda) = Independence Day (Martina) = Joey (Grace Potter)?
More to ponder.
Where does rap fit into this? Besides Lauryn and Jean Grae and Missy I don't listen to enough chicks who rap. Jean does shit like this on occasion. Does Trina? Eve, Kim, etc.?
Reply
(Alex and Lex, if you've never listened to Roxanne Shanté, you MUST click that link. When I first heard Trina I said to myself, "She's great, but she'll never come close to Shanté.")
In any event, the connection to "Doo Wop (That Thing)"** is how each song is saturated in mid-to-late-'60s reggae variations of the late-'50s early-'60s black vocal groups, though right now actually listening to the Lauryn Hill song I notice that the equivalent to "Need U Bad"'s "Ooo ooo ooos" are the horn parts not the vocal parts. But turns out that "Need U Bad" samples an actual '60s reggae cover of an actual r&b song (Cornell Campbell And The Eternals' cover of the Impressions' "Queen Of The Minstrels," both of which I link here). Also, much closer than "Doo Wop (That Thing)" to "Need U Bad" in melody and chord pattern and "ooos" and "ohs" but not in feel is ( ... )
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