Customer Reviews

Space Shift

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the type of album you want everyone to hear. Every track is good. If you haven't heard Spacek before, he is an electrosoul multiinstrumentalist, producer and vocalist. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he does all of these things equally well, and he also has something to say. He is heir to both the legacies of Marvin and Curtis: Steve plays it cool. Think "Trouble Man" or "Let's Get it On" with a Mayfield falsetto. Both musically and lyrically, he avoids cliche and keeps things fresh. Richly textured sounds and a beautiful, distinctive voice make this an album just right for slipping between the sheets... but the beats keep heads nodding right along. A jittery, glichy, cut-up style of beatmaking is his trademark, though this album is earthier and less spaced-out (no pun intended) than his previous albums; it is a more satifying listen from start to finish (this is also the first album released under his full name, as opposed to his "group" Spacek). This is the Spacek album we always knew he could make. Flawless.

This record sounds so familiar. The reason I swear I've heard it before is that it has moments when it is exactly what I want soul music on the radio to sound like. At its best, Spaceshift recalls a collage of the soul artists we've loved over the years, but gives them bigger more ballsy hip-hop influenced production. "Slave" produced by Mr. French is one of those timeless joints that will have old folks smiling when interest from the next generation of crate-diggers forces some label to re-release it 50 years from now.

The album's not uniformly incredible. Some songs like "Love Yu Better" lose the groove and wander into that dangerous realm of cheesy house. It even has downright corny moments like "3 Hours of Fun."

But for every lapse, there is a song like "Smoke" that you would have paid the entire album's price for all by itself. The song is an incredible collaboration between Steve and Leon Ware, the brilliant songwriter responsible for Marvin Gaye's "I Want You." The blend of old and new could not come off better. That's actually a pretty good way to describe the majority of this record. It's a flawless update of everything you love about classic soul.

this guy is on a whole other level, when it comes to neo soul music. I absolutely embrace the sheer individuality!! i love how each song sounds different, but still kinda has its jittery, electronic, spaced out sound 2 it.. can i get an AMEN to the tune 'Dollar'... laaaawd have mercy!!! that tune cudnt play the whole way thru with me, cos i kept rewinding it!! BIG TUNE!!!.. the production is splendid!! (RIP Jay Dee. one of many of ur finest)..

this album isnt 4 any and any1.. u have to be READY!.. doesn't hurt to take a listen though. it will b worth it!!

I was lucky enough to grow up near Detroit, where the soul & R&B hits just kept on comin' in the 1960's. Steve Spacek honors--and completely reconstructs--that music. In "Dollar" he breaks apart the structure of a traditional soul ballad, and turns it into one beautiful, suspended, note after another--ornamenting it with his voice. Very baroque. Every song seems like a completely new idea. With this album, I think Steve Spacek has completely rewritten the book.