Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
he's got soul , he's just that good!!, November 4, 2003
By A Customer
this is just the music I was looking for in my life,
and to add to my music collection,every song is good
and some are great, and some just make me get up and
dance and feel good.'mama knew love' the perfect song
to start this cd off, 'cornbread & fish' track 2 keeps '
the cd going and track 3,4,5, get you ready for track
6'which is why I got this cd, he sang this on tv and
blew me away with it, I have'nt seen someone sing with
so much soul and passion sence I cant remember who? 'Comin from where I'm from' is just a great song ,
track 11' was the next track which took my breath away
and got under my skin, I mean this is a great cd, song
for song this guy sings his heart out and puts all his
soul into each song, just like it should be, Anthony
Hamilton is going to bring back soul music to all of
us , there was a void in my music life ,a space missing
and thanks to this cd I have reason to get excited again about
music , thank you anthony,
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Love Listening To His Pain Because That's Where I'm From, October 31, 2003
The truly great soul singers have the ability to draw you into their music by revealing their pain in their records. Their power is unbridled, and you find yourself trying to recreate their raspy delivery all day everyday. There have been a handful of talents with this power, Sam Cooke, Al Green, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Rahsaan Patterson, and yes Anthony Hamilton. This is real music too, not a whole lot of sampling and interpolating going on here. The one notable sample on the CD however is the clever usage of Jay-Z's "Momma Loves Me" which set's the tone for the CD's first track, "Momma Knew Love". After your head stops bobbin and you take time out to experience the lyrics and the delivery you realize there is a story teller at work. 12 songs later you emerge from his world, his upbringing, his biography, enlightened and educated about one man's struggle to grow up, live learn and love. It doesn't get any better than this. I will own 6 copies of this one, just as I do Rahsaan Patterson's first two offerings. I cannot wait for his sophomore effort. Thanks for the music Mr. Hamilton
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm a Mess, August 8, 2006
I know he has a newer album out, but I am still obsessed with Anthony Hamilton's "I'm a Mess," from 2003's Comin' From Where I'm From. And here's why:
There's just something about Anthony Hamilton's voice. Its rough, gravelly quality smoothed out with a bit of molasses betrays a long history of pain, of rough times, of love lost and found. His voice is instantly recognizable: gruff and gritty, yet tender; strong and earthy, with a thin undercurrent of emotional fragility just below the surface. And while the very timbre of his voice is a play on opposites, one thing is for certain: Anthony Hamilton sings the truth, chile.
The song begins with Hamilton's belting out a loud and soulful "Oh." But it's not just any "oh." Oh no. Immediately, this "oh" hints at the despair, the frustration, and a bit of hopefulness that he's feeling. And this "oh" leaves you smoldering. Guts wrenched out. Get ready for what's coming up. Anthony's got a story to tell you.
He's split up with his lover, his best friend, his soul mate. Any breakup is painful to some degree, but this particular kind, the kind I like to call the "no call, no show" tactic, has got to be one of the worst:
You could have called, you could have wrote, you could have tried
I'd rather you slit me `cross the throat so I can die
Instead of leaving, no explanation as to why
You don't want me no more
Anyone who's been dumped in this way immediately understands the bewilderment; the betrayal; the endless questioning of self; the indescribable pain. Oh Jah, the crippling pain:
I'm a mess right now, I can't eat, can't sleep
Bills are piling high, ain't worked in three weeks
Ain't bathed, can't shave, `cause my heart is so tender like living in a blender
I'm shaken and I'm stirred
Hamilton's sorrowful pace is relentless. The listeners get no reprieve from the emotional journey he takes you on. In fact, after the second verse and chorus, the backup singers sing the following:
Call me, write me, love me
Come home
You think it's going to end at two repetitions, but no. It becomes the song's coda and becomes a seemingly endless pleading for the loved one's return. It's an emotional request from the spurned lover whose level of loneliness increases with each increasing octave. Call me. Write me. Love me. Come home.
If you're a sensitive bitch like me, I dare you to not be able to identify - or to not cry, even - singing along to this part. As the pitch increases, your throat and vocal cords tie themselves into knots - but does your throat hurt because you're not that great a singer and are having trouble reaching the notes, or is it painful because each repetition brings that all-too-familiar ball in your throat, as if you were holding back the tears? And at the same time the pitch increases, the coda takes you to a deeper level of pain and desperation: This visceral reaction is almost as if it was you, in fact, who was left behind by a lover who disappeared without a trace.
Or maybe you really are that person who was left behind, in which case, this song becomes an emotional post-breakup catharsis. And maybe through the sorrow in Hamilton's voice, you eventually realize that he will never call. He will never write. He will never love you. And he will never come home.
But you will get through it. Eventually.
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