Kings Ballad [Vinyl]

Georgia Anne Muldrow | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (February 9, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: UBIQUITY RECORDS
• ASIN: B002YVYZN6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,112 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Indeed

2. Doobie Down

3. Simple Advice

4. Kings Ballad

5. R.I.P.

6. Thrones

7. Summer Love

8. Shang-A-Lang

9. The Ooh Wee Show

10. Can't Stand Yo Love

11. To The Stage

12. March For Africa

13. Chocolate Reign

14. Baby Dee

15. Live

16. Room Punk!

17. Thatch

18. Industrial Bap

19. Morena Del Ray

Editorial Reviews

Slicing pop n'lock-friendly funk with gospeland gracious soul Georgia Anne Muldrowis shining as a true West Coast original.The seeds of early experimental releasesare now blossoming as her trademarkscattershot beats and adventurous deepjazz melodies have grown to become thebackbone for fully crafted songs.With aspirations to be a modern-day Quincy Jones, Muldrow istruly a renaissance musician. She is always looking to take hercraft to a higher ground. She channels her unstoppable creativityinto music that is commercially viable but does not lose sight ofher essence as an artist who challenges the norm. She bears theenviable ability to play all her own instruments, and write andperform her own songs. Everything you hear on Kings Ballad ishandcrafted and non-sample-based. She has been called amodern day Nina Simone, and fans of Chaka Khan and BettyDavies would feel at home with Kings Ballad, too.In the midst of amazingly fruitful studio time, she cranked outseveral albums and compilations in 2009, on the back of recentcollaborations with the mighty Mos Def (on his Ecstatic album),and Erykah Badu (on her New Amerykah album). Kings Ballad isthe latest work and is all original and exclusive. On most Muldrowsings, on other she raps, sometimes both, always effortlessly.Dudley Perkins joins in on a couple of tracks, Medaphor lays downa quick rhyme, her son Nokware throws down the occasionalrattle, but otherwise it's pretty much Muldrow all the way.This freeform collection of brand new joints is oozing withconfidence and vision, it's obvious that Muldrow is morecomfortable than ever and is pushing forwards as an artist.Jumping across boundaries from songs to raps, the album followsno rules with instrumental beat-driven sketches jumping-outbetween a barrage of vocals, and bouncing summer jams buttingup next to lush ballads. Explaining her evolution from debutreleases to present day she says, 'My sound is more mature, moresure, more relevant

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, February 28, 2010

By 

J. Johnson "capricornrising1" (CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kings Ballad (Audio CD)

4.5 Stars

I love this woman!

Kings Ballad, Georgia Anne Muldrow's third release under her government name, is easily her best. (And 2006's Olesi: Fragments of An Earth and last year's Umsindo were nothing to sneeze at).

While Kings Ballad is definitely her most accessible work to date, Georgia is still Georgia. Still spewing out cosmic knowledge and still as Afrocentric as she wants to be. Yet, what makes Kings really resonate is that despite Georgia's striking individuality, the messages are universal. Whether she's mediating on the future of our children (the opener "Indeed"), giving "Simple Advice" on a track of the same name, telling us to "never throw your dreams away" on the moody "Live" or just playfully radiating her "Summer Love" alongside her (equally cosmic) other half Dudley Perkins aka Declaime, it's all more earthbound while still retaining Georgia's trademark of unpredictability.

Georgia is a brilliant producer and arranger. Her kinetic productions are rooted equally in free-jazz spontaneity, boom bamp wallop and funk's thump while glistening with an unmistakable sunny Cali atmosphere. This is especially evidenced on the album's remorseful title track, a elegy to Muldrow family friend Michael Jackson and on "Can't Stand Yo' Love", where Georgia sings with a Larry Blackmon snarl.

Kings Ballad's lone slight may be the loss of momentum that occurs near its conclusion.

Seeing that Kings Ballad is her most accessible and accomplished work, the mainstream may come crawling towards her even more. After all, Erykah Badu and Mos Def have already adapated Georgia's songs on their latest releases ("Master Teacher" on New Amerykah, Part One and "Out My Mind, Right On Time" on the forthcoming New Amerykah, Part Two & "Roses" on The Ecstatic respectively.)
If they don't, it's simply their loss since Kings Ballad indicates that Muldrow will just continue to grow as a producer, expressionist, writer and singer/rapper. She's only a mere 26 and continues to grow on every successive project, so you can only imagine the future!

Already one of my favorites of 2010!