What is it about soul music that makes it feel so, well, complete? I always feel like I’m getting the whole package when I listen to someone like Stevie Wonder or any artist that could fall under Motown. Even if the songs are about the deepest of the blues, I tend to wear a grin because there is something so universal to the sound.

It’s how I felt within seconds of listening to The Slims, full of warm familiarity and thoughtfully placed sounds.

Based out of Gainesville, Florida, the Slims are Travis Atria and Collin Whitlock, with a little help from their friends on backup vocals and strings. Their debut album “Killa Dilla” is a sort of mini-Odyssey of fictional soul singer Snooky Green (see song parentheticals) “through all the eras of soul music”. The band isn’t shy about their influences and why would they be? I think it works to their advantage. The sounds of Curtis Mayfield in one area and James Brown in another welcome you in to this unfamiliar territory so that songs like “Genghis Kahn’s Cavalry (Snooky Changes)” (incredible), which shows off more of the groups own unique style, are given a good and thorough listen.

I’ve been listening to “Lovey Dovey (Snooky Falls In Love)” non-stop over the last week. This is the single Phil Spector wished he could have, but never released. To be honest, I’m not sure it would have had the same flavor if it fell into his hands. The strings, the bass like a pumping heart, the jumpy piano percussion and dream-filtered vocals bring this song to life. Hearing snippets of string arrangements or the organ or horns is such a treat. Oh, and if you have recently gotten into Raphael Saadiq, for instance, check out “Do I Have To Do Everything? (Snooky Cheats on His Bottom Woman)” - I bet you’ll really, really like it.

The Slims’ sound jumps off the page, so to speak. It is absolutely kinetic. They’re the Squirrel Nut Zippers of soul, if I may say, in that there is a lot going on, but they know how to edit themselves and keep surprising us in the next song.

Check out the full stream of their album on Bandcamp and listen to it from start to finish to get the full story effect, though the songs live just as well on their own, too.

Connect with The Slims -  Bandcamp | Facebook

The Slims – Killa Dilla (Snooky Meets The Girl)
The Slims – Lovey Dovey (Snooky Falls In Love)

Beyonce has been at the top of the pyramid ever since her days in Destiny’s Child. If you don’t love Beyonce, you obviously don’t like much pop music, and probably aren’t reading this. The rest of us, from hardcore Beyonce fiends who squealed in delight when she debuted “1+1″ on American Idol’s season finale, to people who simply respect her incredible vocal talent, can pretty much agree that she’s the queen of the game.

On “4″, producer Terius Youngdell Nash, better known as The Dream, uses Beyonce’s undeniable appeal to take a chance on an entire album of 80′s-90′s throwback R&B jams. When I say throwback, I mean that the whole album seriously sounds like the most futuristic thing that ever could’ve been released in the 80′s. For longtime R&B fans, this will be a delightful treat.

I was excited to hear “Run The World (Girls)”, the first single, because it had a heavy hip-hop feel enhanced by the writing and production of DJs Switch, Afrojack, and Diplo. Excited is an understatement- I was hooked because I heard the stylings of Switch and Diplo (AKA Major Lazer) as soon as the track began. The voice sample that gets pitch-bent up and down and chopped back and forth, I swear I heard somewhere on M.I.A.’s Diplo-produced mixtape “Vicki Leekx”. After ”Run The World” dropped, I was stoked to hear the rest of the album which was surely going to be the hip-hop and R&B of the future. It mixed a drumline rhythm and cheerleader-shouts with electro sounds, how bizarrely delicious!

So imagine my surprise when I gave it the first spin (I guess it’s not a “spin” on an iPod, is it?) and what greeted me was, for the most part, a collection of retro-styled midtempo songs about all matters of the heart. The album channels artists like Stevie Wonder and Prince, often capturing an abundance of uninteresting synthesizer voices that didn’t really warrant re-discovery from 25 years ago. The ballads, which dominate the selection of songs, hark back to 70′s soul. Of course, Beyonce has the album-selling power to do whatever she pleases.

Fortunately for those of us who are listening, the vocal prowess she displays is more impressive than on any of her previous albums. I wish I could say with certainty how much Autotune had been used on this album, I’m sure there’s at least a little bit. But even Autotune, in all its pop-star-making glory, can’t invent the vocal range and flexibility that this woman has. “4″ sounds like she’s really sweating it out in the booth, with her fists clenched and face contorted into something a little bit less beautiful.

Case in point: “Countdown” begins with the word “boy” sung in a acrobatic string of about 20 successive notes in two and a half seconds. After that, a raging dance-worthy jam drops with horns and percussion with drumline, Afrobeat, and trap-music influences, in addition to a Boyz II Men sample. The verses are carried by a plucky synth line that accompanies the verses which Beyonce spits with as much or more swagger than her hubby Jay-Z.

The Kanye West-produced “Party”, an 80′s throwback so cheesy it sounds more hip than most of the others, features a lukewarm verse by Andre 3000 rhyming “Never thought that we could become someone else’s hero / Man, we were just in the food court, eating our gyros”. Being as tastefully produced as most things that come from the Kanye kitchen, it could’ve been the third radio single if it weren’t for that incohesive guest verse by the Outkast member.

I’m not much for power ballads except for a few penned by Billy Corgan. Therefore, much of this album makes me want to hit the skip button. There are some songs that are really on-point, like the minimally-produced and maximally-sung “1+1″, or “Rather Die Young” with its funky and explorative melodies. Others just sound cheesy and unimaginative, like “Love On Top”, which sounds embarrassingly like it was brought from 1983 in a time machine. Also disappointing to my ears is “I Was Here”, penned by Diane Warren, the woman responsible for LeAnn Rimes’ 1997 hit “How Do I Live”. It’s probably got the most serious and adult lyrics of any song on this album, but it’s sonically the most boring thing I’ve made myself endure recently.

My bets for the third and possibly fourth singles are “Countdown” and “End of Time”, respectfully. The latter flaunts a slightly tamer version of the Diplo/Switch dance-y vibe, with more conventional sounds and a totally current, rhythmic vocal self-sample right before the third minute of the song.

“4″ is a polarizing album, mixing sounds together that hardly ever get to bump and grind, much less under the name of someone as famous as Beyonce. I had fun listening to it about 30 times through and reading what other people had to say about it to write this review. A few of these songs have been added to a some of my iTunes playlists, the others will only annoy me when they pop up in Shuffle. I’m definitely glad I listened before I bought anything.

Connect with Beyonce: Facebook | Twitter | Website | Last.fm

Something about summer always gets me thinking about songs that sound like summer, but I’m not the only one. Earlier today Tyler the Creator dropped his Summer Camp Mix on the Odd Future web site.

The mix is full of tunes that just feel like heat rays beating down on you while you’re chilling on your backyard patio with a 40 and your chillest buds, with the rest filled in with Tyler under the moniker DJ Stank Daddy bringing in the usual Odd Future fair. Overall it’s a pretty sweet mix covering a wide range of music from old to brand new, from R&B and Hip-Hop to Indie. Yet with all the variance Tyler is able to make everything sound natural together, as well as making it sound like the chillest summer day. One thing I know for sure is that I’m going to be playing this for the rest of the summer while skating or riding around in the oppressive Texas heat.

Tyler didn’t put up a tracklist, but here’s the best we could do (someone wanna help out with the second-last track?):

1. Homebase NYC Feat. Coco O – “Sleep”
2. Clipse – Gangsta Lean
3. TI – Who You Wanna
4. Toro Y Moi – “Imprint After”
5. Jay-Z – Fuck All Nite
6. Summer Camp – “Jake Ryan”
7. Cam’ron – Hey Ma
8. Erykah Badu – “Gone Baby, Don’t be Long”
9. NERD – Yeah You
10. Beyonce – Party
11. Gorillaz – Slow Country
12. Pharell – Frontin
13. Toro Y Moi – How I know
14. Tyler The Creator – Analog (feat. Hodgy Beats)
15. Real Estate – Black Lake
16. Smith Westerns – Weekend
17. Gucci Mane – “Have It All”
18. Jill Scott – A Long Walk
19. Stevie Wonder – Too High
20. 2pac – I Get Around
21. Domo Genesis – Drunk
22. Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able
23. Snoop Dogg – Let’s Get Blown
24. ???
25. Gap Band – Outstanding

(via)

All of the songs listed below were personally chosen by the artist or blogger above. I got in touch with a lot of artists and bloggers who were all kind enough to get back to me and take part in Desert Island Discs. If you’re unaware of the concept behind Desert Island Discs, check out the basic pitch I gave the artists and bloggers I got in touch with.  You can support the artists featured by clicking on the album cover and buying their music.

Today’s Desert Island Discs is brought to you by Steffaloo, our most recent addition to the growing list of Ones To Watch.  While I go more extensively in the introduction piece that I wrote up about her, these selections depict the sunny disposition Steffaloo intends to stay in if stranded. Check out her must-have list and while you’re at it, check out her must-hear exclusive, “On Fire” [via Losing My Edge], below.

Connect with Steffaloo – Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp | Tumblr

1 ~ Feist – “Inside And Out”

It was impossible to choose just one track of Feist’s, because all of her music slays me haha.. so I chose two , but I chose this song mainly because the lyrics destroy me…they communicate things that I myself have expressed in other ways, perfectly, and the way she sings it melts my soul. It never gets old.

2 ~ Feist – “Feel It All”

I love this one because it reminds me to feel life…all the beauty and joy that it entails, it makes me automatically happy to be alive. You can dance to it or you can sit and think to it.

3 ~ Billie Holiday – “Sun Showers”

This was also a tough choice, because there are so many songs by Billie that I would choose – “Body & Soul”, “Strange Fruit”, and of course “You Go To My Head”.  This one however, seems to be just the right mix between nostalgic and hopeful. It has a way of simply taking from your chest all the things you’ve carried all day…and it just…sets you free I suppose.

4 ~ Purity Ring – “Ungirthed”

Lord knows if I’m stranded on an island I’m gonna need to get my dance on, and this is definitely the song that never fails to get me moving. That, and it just makes me flat out happy!

5 ~ Clive Tanaka – “Neu Chicago”

This is a whole album that I would love to take with me on a stranded island, but I suppose this song will suffice. No matter what you’re feeling, this song will make it all feel better.

6 ~ Stevie Wonder – “Overjoyed”

This is one of my favorite songs…you just can’t go wrong with Stevie and this song just fills me up with joy.

7 ~ Telepopmusik – “Breathe”

Just like the lyrics say, this song reminds me to breathe…kinda takes my mind off of all the heavy things going on and lets me take a deep breath, let out all the heaviness.

8 ~ Jesse Woods – “Neon Rose”

I’m pretty sure I could listen to this song on repeat forever. There’s something about the tone in his voice, the words…it makes me happy and desirous all at the same time.

Connect with Steffaloo – Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp | Tumblr

Released in 1972, “Talking Book” is the 15th album from Stevie Wonder. It was the second album in a series of five released in what he called the “classic period”. The album is full of introspection and social commentary embedded in the songs which Wonder produced, wrote, and played most of the instruments himself.

If you’ve never heard a full Stevie Wonder album from this period, it’s hard to imagine the mood he creates by the juxtaposition of ballad and funk, of the tension between subject matter and musical mood. What is really interesting is that he writes an upbeat song about a breakup. He employed this approach throughout this era, and the results were nothing but exhilarating. Just listen to “Joy Inside My Tears” on “Songs In The Key Of Life” and you’ll get what I’m talking about.

- Tiana from Ride the Tempo helping you rediscover old music

• Sign up for eMusic and get your first 25 tracks for free, then they start at only $0.50 (that’s half the price of iTunes).
• Amazon – CD | Vinyl | MP3
• Insound – Vinyl | CD

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week.

Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I’ve been listening to (new and old) over the past week and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them.  Want me to check someone out? Let me know at that Contact Us thinger up there.

In order to listen to the playlist you’ll need to have Flash enabled.

This week’s #MusicMonday playlist: