Author Archives: Jason Nazario

Record Club: Erykah Badu-“Hello”(Ft. Andre 3000)

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Erykah Badu’s “Hello” is the 11th track on her 2015 R&B, Soul, and Electronic mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone. The mixtape itself (inspired by Drake’s single chart-topping “Hotline Bling”) has Badu speak about phones and their ability to transport affection, desire, and love. The song “Hello” features Andre 3000 who was romantically involved with Badu for seven years and have a child together.

The song, unlike others in the track, has less electronic influences and described in our class discussion as a more “natural” or “organic” sound. This can be attributed to the soulful breathy vocals of Badu which harmonizes with 3000’s voice which feels like a stable pillow to Badu’s singing. As well as the simple and spacious beat of the song which is a sample of the famous The Isley Brothers cover of Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me.” The two drum hits, single strung groovy guitar, with tear drop keyboard notes that smoothly transition from 3000’s verse to Badu’s part.

The most interesting part of this track is the chronicle of the song’s sample and music revolution. The Isley Brothers added soul and sensual feeling with their “babies” and “ooouuu’s” to Todd Rundgren’s original poetic lyrics. But it was in the 1970s, a period of eroticism and teen urges being expressed while at the same time teens felt they were growing up too fast. Ann Powers would put it as the “hypocrisy” in the music industry to profit off those urges while preaching a way of chastity. Todd Rundgren’s song about dating, self-doubt, maturity, and coming of age spoke to a lot of kids that “felt something was wrong.”

Badu’s insight and heartening relationship with 3000 communicated a timeless challenge in young love. Carrying over that message of validating one’s own emotion and their partner’s as equals. There is a beauty that a song from a young 20-year-old Rundgren managed to cross boundaries of race, genre and time, so that two matured crossed lovers could do the same

Breathy singing: parceling out air while singing using support and with a clean to hold notes. 

Harmony: two or more vocal parts come together in an arrangement that adds feeling, depth, texture, and perhaps even a sense of tranquility to a song

Sample: taking a section of audio from another source – in this instance, an existing song – and then reworking it into the creation of a new track

Verse: a repeated section of a song that typically features a new set of lyrics on each repetition. Compared to a chorus section, verses tend to vary more throughout the course of a song. And while choruses typically contain a song’s signature musical motif, the music of a verse is often written to complement the chorus music.

The Strokes – Is This It (Album Review)

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The colliding lifestyle of fortune, sex, dating, drinking, and the uncertainty of it all as it rests on fleeting youth in New York City; those moments are on full display in the studio debut album Is This It by American rock band The Strokes. Released in the US on October 9th 2001, the album builds on their EP The Modern Age which resulted in a record studio bidding war over the band’s Garage/Indie rock sound that would soon be considered one the best rock albums of the 21st century.

The band’s members Julian Casablancas(Vocals), Albert Hammond Jr(lead guitarist), Nick Valensi(guitarist), Nikolai Fraiture(Bassist), and Fabrizio Moretti(drums) start off with the song “Is This It” which ironically sounds like the end of a long night of partying. The consistent tired heartbeat of the bass and drum with a guitar melody that sounds like it’s trying to pick up but never does, reflects the lyrics “Can’t you see I’m trying?/ I don’t even like it/ I just lied to/ Get to your apartment” a guy not sure whether to continue the night or to just rest for the next one that comes along. Other songs on the album like “The Modern Age”, “When It Started”, and “Someday” (Darling, your head’s not right/ Ah, see, alone we stand, together we fall apart/ Yeah, I think I’ll be alright) also share the somber tone that dating life delivers, either acknowledging time by the nights spent or of the years that could quickly pass. 

That isn’t to say that the album doesn’t have the hard thrashing rock and dry vocals of wet passion, if anything the album manages to transition up to the sounds between tracks and within songs. “Alone, Together”, “Take It Or Leave It”, and “Trying Your Luck” are amplified by Valensi’s sharp guitar riffs that manage to not poke through, but rest on Fraiture’s bass and Moretti’s pulsating backbeat drums that try to contain the rhythm. Then there’s Hammond Jr.’s guitar solos where the sped-up distortion sounds like cool metal grinding on each other like the cat and mouse game guys and girls play. Or as Ann Powers in Good Booty would describe that space rock spoke to, “[b]oys were encouraged to channel their sexual urges into constructive activities,[…] girls had to be both alluring and modest, encouraging boys while discouraging them.” The solos were encircled by Casablancas’s lyrics of that space, “He knows it’s justified to kill to survive/[…]The world is over and I don’t care[…]” The lyrics are so relatable that it makes you want to say them to the girls you had before or hoped that guy you let in your life could have been as honest.

Then there’s the tracks that land in the middle “Last Nite”, “Hard To Explain”, “Barely Legal” which made the band all the more special. The guitar, bass, and drums in these songs are sort of huddled together like controlled adrenaline, like waiting in the lobby of the apartment before she lets you in. A chorus like “I just want to misbehave/ I just want to be your slave/ Oh, you ain’t never had nothing I wanted, but/ I want it all[…]” said what many felt but were too into themselves to say it. That being sympathetic or vulnerable was not the result of that ‘one girl that one night’ or an exception of the rule when you’re a player or what makes you different from all the other guys; it’s a packaged deal. You’re going get your heart hurt but you’re gonna have fun while doing it. 

Those studios knew the band’s sound would entice a generation of kids who wanted to be the overthinking aloof guys who could get any girl they wanted while lamenting on how hard it is to be a person who doesn’t care.