Stone Rollin'

Raphael Saadiq | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: March 25, 2011
• Label: Columbia
• Copyright: (P) 2010, 2011 Sony Music Entertainment
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 43:01
• Genres:
  • R&B
• ASIN: B004YPCF2S
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,512 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A rolling stone! May 10, 2011

By Nse Ette TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

Raphael Saadiq fell in love with that Philly/Memphis/Motown sound on his last album "The Way I See It", and that love continues on his new album "Stone Rollin'".

Like its predecessor, the songs sound like covers of classics but are in fact new compositions with most of the vocals and instrumentation (guitar, keyboard, bass, Mellotron, and percussion) handled by the man himself, with Saadiq crooning, yelping or moving to falsetto as the mood demands.

Opening is the tambourine-laced thumping Soul/Rock "Heart Attack", while the bouncy Blues/Rock "Radio" recalls Little Walter. The titletrack is a midtempo harmonica-laced number, "Day Dreams" is Rockabilly, while the beautiful and breezy "Movin' Down The Line" recalls Marvin Gaye. "Just Don't" features Yukimi Nakano and could have fallen out of Stevie Wonder's seventies song book.

My favourites are the gentle "Good Man" which successfully straddles vintage and modern (and on which he laments his lover leaving during rough times despite his holding two jobs to provide for her), the lush moody "The Answer" (with light martial beats,ovely guitar and delicate horns), and the groovy hidden track "The Perfect Storm" which is so D'angelo.

There isn't a single mis-step on this delightful album. He makes cool seem effortless!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible Album! May 20, 2011

By goodboyforlife

Format:Audio CD

For me this is the very best soul album of the last two years (since Maxwell's BLACKsummer's night)! It is also the very best album that Raphael Saadiq has ever released! I don't quite understand the comments of reviewers stating that he is stuck in the 60's. This album has clearly been influenced by the past, but takes a modern approach with a timeless sound. I have never heard anything quite like "Heart Attack", "Go To Hell", or "Over You," which has a very surprising indie rock sound! Raphael infuses a lot more of his own personality in these songs than he did on his last album "The Way I See It." The song writing is especially fantastic, and I'd argue that "Go To Hell," has the best lyrics of Raphael's career, with some of the most poetic lyrics of any contemporary soul song I've heard. "Over You," and "Just Don't" are also great with unique twists on their titles. Even the production and instrumentation on the majority of tracks have a fuller, more vivid quality. I can't listen to this album without dancing in my seat, and I absolutely love every song on the album. One of my favourites is the hidden track "The Perfect Storm", which nearly sounds like a lost D'Angelo song, but is moreso "Instant Vintage" Raphael Saadiq.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Premium blend May 10, 2011

By Markus Rauchenwald

Format:Audio CD

Rollin' through black music history with the ease of a master, he switches between genre interpretations from track to track. There are Sly Stone grooves, Philly soul, rockabilly, Rhythm & especially Blues, an upbeat Ray Charles routine, Motown referencing "Happy Together", Marvin Gaye laments and a jazzy Southern marching band to carry us home. That said, this has a modern, edgy sound, cleaning off all sleepiness, played tight and mean. Saadiq has no time for middlebrow revivals. He pursues the heart and social significance of the classics and in doing so produces one himself.