Après Southern Comfort sorti en 2007, Anthony Hamilton revient avec un opus tout nouveau, tout beau, intitulé The Point Of It All. Ce sixième effort du soulmen s’est fondu dans la masse de sorties Soul/R&B de ces derniers mois. Résultat : l’album s’est retrouvé dans les bacs sans que grand monde soit au courant. Il est vrai qu’à coté des Keyshia Cole, Brandy, Beyonce ou autre Ne-Yo, Anthony Hamilton n’a pas les arguments médiatiques pour espérer rivaliser. Chose regrettable quant on connaît les qualités de cet artiste, qui, lui au moins, continu à faire du vrai R&B sans tomber dans les vices de l’industrie du disque. Etant fan du chanteur, c’est avec un immense plaisir que je vous invite à pénétrer dans l’univers de The Point Of It All, opus chaleureux, classe et idéal pour se réchauffer en cette période hivernale.

Dans le monde de la Soul et du R&B, on trouve un peu tout et n’importe quoi. Il y a les ceux qui perdurent à faire de la musique de qualité, par amour tout simplement, même si les ventes ne suivent pas toujours, ceux (ou celles, généralement) qui ont comprit que pour gagner de l’argent, il fallait désormais se dénuder et se réorienter vers la variété, et enfin, cette nouvelle vague nous venant droit de l’Angleterre, qui évolue dans un style rétro-Soul façon 21ème siècle. Parmi ces trois catégories, où peut on classer Anthony Hamilton ? Probablement dans la première, même si il n’a pas exactement le profil type. En fait, il fait parti d’une génération de chanteur, au même titre que Musiq Soulchild, D’Angelo ou Raheem DeVaughn qui évoluent tranquillement dans un registre variant entre Nu-Soul et R&B ultra posé. Un vrai régal pour les oreilles quand on est fana du style.

Autant le dire tout de suite, ce n’est pas avec cet opus qu’Anthony Hamilton changera son fusil d’épaule. Il persiste et signe dans ce registre café crème, qui lui colle à la peau et lui va si bien. Comme les précédents, The Point Of It All se présente comme un album très personnel, avec très peu, voir aucun invité. Seul le sudiste David Banner à droit aux honneurs sur le relaxant “Cool“. Inutile de chercher à comprendre pourquoi lui et pas un autre, on mettra ça sur le compte de l’instrumental, fort bien chargé en basses. Hormis ce titre, le disque repose essentiellement sur des mélodies planantes, faites de piano, de cymbales et de guitares acoustiques. “The News” entame les hostilités sur une rythmique soutenue et maîtrisée par une boucle de piano mélancolique. Dès les premières secondes, l’orfèvre s’envole dans les aigus. Difficile alors de ne pas succomber au charme de sa voix.

Les morceaux s’enchaînent à merveille dans une alchimie et une homogénéité impressionnante. Lorsqu’une ballade se termine, une autre encore plus subtile démarre, et ainsi de suite. Mais un des meilleurs moment de The Point Of It All a lieu à la septième piste. “Soul’s On Fire“, c’est le titre du morceau, emporte l’auditeur dans la magie et l’univers d’Anthony Hamilton, monde où le R&B a gardé ses lettres de noblesse. D’ailleurs à ce sujet, je voudrais insister sur l’ignorance des médias. Quant on entend à la télé : ” William Baldé, nouvelle sensation Soul ” ou alors ” Le rappeur Akon, habitué des featuring… “, je me dis que la situation est grave et je n’arrive pas à feindre l’indifférence. Après, dans les magasins, je cherche dans le rayon R&B et je tombe sur Rihanna, les Pussycat Dolls et Madonna ! La majorité des gens ne doivent pas porter attention à ce genre de détails, mais moi, j’y peux rien, ça me fait bondir. Prenons “When I Grow Up“, dernier chef d’œuvre en date des Pussycat Dolls, et comparons le à “Her Heart“, chanson présente dans l’album que je suis en train de chroniquer. Après écoute, comment peut on avoir le culot de classer ces deux albums dans la même catégorie ? Je ne comprendrais jamais. Par ailleurs, on m’a souvent fait cette réflexion lorsque je disais que je ne pouvais pas blairer Rihanna et cie : ” Ah, t’aimes pas le R&B… ! » Enfin bon, j’arrête là mes commentaires personnels même si je tiens à préciser que ces ” artistes ” ci ne sont pas à classer dans la catégorie Soul/R&B.

Ce qui pourra déplaire les auditeurs de cet opus sera certainement le manque de prise de risque et le coté ‘déjà vu’ de certaines chansons. Personnellement, ça ne me dérange absolument pas, surtout que The Point Of It All ne contient pas que des ballades. En effet, j’ai déjà cité “Cool” mais je pourrais rajouter l’énergique “Fallin’ In Love“, sur lequel Anthony Hamilton prend une voix de chanteur de blues, le country “Prayin’ For You” et la deuxième partie du morceau, “Superman“, où l’on se croirait revenu en pleine Soul des années 1950.

Et que dire de la fin du disque tant le niveau atteint frise la perfection. La voix de l’artiste enivre littéralement, quant aux productions (signées Kelvin Wooten, Mark Batson, Salaam Remi…) elles ne font que magnifier un ensemble déjà merveilleusement beau. Pour son sixième essai, Anthony Hamilton frappe très fort, mais j’ai envie de dire, comme d’habitude ! Dommage que cet homme n’ai pas la reconnaissance de certains, surtout qu’il le mérite plus qu’eux. Mais telle est faite la musique et se sera toujours ainsi. Reste que The Point Of It All m’a conquit, et j’espère que si vous ne l’avez pas encore écouté, il vous fera le même effet. A coup sûr mon coup de foudre du mois de décembre. Une pépite !

17,5 / 20

Mexican super-producers and Flyte Tyme co-horts Bobby Ross & Izzy Avila aka The Avila Brothers are in the studio working with Anthony Hamilton and Deborah Cox on their respective new albums.

Anthony’s new album, The Point of it All (Due out December 2nd stateside), also has Soulquarian James Poyser and Plant Life’s Jack Splash working on production. Deborah Cox is tapping into the dream team that made Janet what she is, hiring the legendary Jam & Lewis, Big Jim Wright, and the Avila Brothers her upcoming album, The Promise (due out stateside November 11th). Also working on Deborah’s album are Devo Springsteen (John Legend, Kanye West, Estelle) & Shep Crawford (Tamia, Yolanda Adams, Blu Cantrell).

While the Avila Brothers are best known for their work with R&B superstars Usher, Mary J Blige & Mariah Carey, they have earnt their chops Soul-side with their premo work on their own debut album The Mood: Soundsational and Bobby Ross’ own unreleased solo material (where is that album Bobby?). If you’ve heard either of the aforementioned productions you will understand what there is to get excited about.

For more information about the Avila Brothers you can hit up their Myspace page. Check out the jam “I Want You” to get a taste of what could come out of their collaboration with Anthony Hamilton.

For an interview with Anthony Hamilton on his upcoming album hit up Fusicology’s blog.

Avila Brothers production catalogue coming soon.

Charlotte, NC native, Anthony Hamilton has been wooing the ladies and even catching co-sign from the dudes for a few years now.  2007’s cameo in the smash hit film, “American Gangster,” performing the song he did for the soundtrack certainly solidified his cred in this rough and tough industry.  But Hamilton has been back in the studio again knocking out his 3rd album and doing live shows, like any stand-up, 6-time Grammy Nominee would.  Because inquiring minds want to know (well, at least the ladies), Fusicology sat down to chat with Anthony during CMJ week in NYC to hear more about “The Point of It All”…

Blue Jean Lean

10.21.08

Fusicology: So the 1st single off the new album is “Cool” featuring David Banner.  For those that might not be familiar with Banner, tell us a bit about him and how this collaboration came to be?

Anthony Hamilton: Well, I think most in the Hip Hop world should know who he is, or at least be familiar – he’s a Mississippi rapper that I’ve known for a little while who I connected with during press time at this year’s BET Awards… and it just came together from there.

F: Speaking of collaborations, now we Fusicologists are a breed of liner-note readers, especially since the dawn of the era of The Producer – with the acclaim brought to Pharrell and Dilla and others – where the people “behind” the music are starting to get the same attention as the vocalist.  You have been working with the famous James Poyser (The Roots, Erykah Badu, Common) for some time now – a name not unfamiliar to us – as well as Mark Batson and Kelvin Wooten… but how did the new producers on “The Point of It All” come into play?  Did you seek them out, or did they come to you?

AH: It really wasn’t totally one way or the other.  It’s one of those situations where we had respected each other’s work for some time and this was just a long time coming… finally we got together to make something happen.

F: Now, one pair of these new producers for you is the Avila Brothers, who have produced Usher and Mariah Carey, while another new sound was conjured up by Jack Splash, of Alicia Keys and John Legend fame.  Would you say that enlisting producers with well-gleaned Pop chops was one of the ways in which you say you “want fans to hear [your] growth” and “also want to open up the ears of those who don’t know about Anthony Hamilton” ?   Is that to say that you are purposely inserting a bit more straight Pop appeal with this album?

AH: No, I wouldn’t say that.  I simply want to be able to try different sounds and reach as many people as possible.  But I mean, of course the more familiar sounds you use, the more people you are going to appeal to.   And Pop is always where you’re gonna find the mainstream – that’s where you’ll always catch the youth, that’s where you can grab them.  I just want to give them something they can learn from.  I want to produce a body of work that can travel any street – you can touch more people that way.

F: Recently, you said of your new project, that you “don’t always want to be known as the sad cat.” – that you “like to have a good time, too.” – So, “now we’re going to boogie in the name of the Lord.” What did you mean by that?

AH: {laughs}  Yeah, what I meant was that too often in popular music you are made to feel as if you have to be nasty or negative to have a good time.  I’m here to show you that we can have a good time without being degrading or nasty – women don’t have to feel like hoes and guys don’t have to feel violent or like they gotta have a lot of money to have a good time. You know, like when MC Hammer came out. {laughs}  I mean, we can have a clean good time with this music – it doesn’t always have to be about sex, sex, sex or anything.  You can dance to this, you can dance to Obama, you can dance to Sarah Palin, or whatever floats your boat.

Music Is the Weapon of the Future...

F: Well, whatever “The Point of It All” brings, one thing your fans can say for sure is that you have that sound – that raw, gritty, old Soul feel – like if we closed our eyes and had never seen what you looked like, we could easily guess you were 60 years old and your tunes were on 45’s.  Where do you think that comes from?

AH: It comes from getting hit in the head with an 8 Track and getting slapped in the behind with a 12”.  {laughs}  No, seriously, I’m not tryin to be anything but me – that’s just who I am, what I feel.  You know, it also has to with what I heard comin up, like when my Mom would put on James Cleveland or Sonny & Cher, you know.

F: They say that some people are just “old souls” – that they’ve been here before, and storytelling just comes easier to them…

AH: That’s it – yeah, that’s it, that’s all it is.  I’m not sure if I’ve been here before, but what I do know is that if I had, I would have cleaned up a lot better. (!)

F: Another thing we can all attest to is that you’ve got the love song down pat.  Hands-down you got that – happy or sad, you got the love song down.  So given that, is there anything new or different we can expect to hear on the new album – any specific topics or issues or stories we can expect to learn about?

AH: Not really, I mean, I just write about whatever’s goin on today.  It’s just me.  What I know.  I ain’t tryin to create no science fiction or anything, that’s for sure.  You won’t hear any futuristic stuff.  Well, there is one song I cut with Jack Splash, called “Fantasy Girl,” that probably won’t make the album, but I’m thinking about putting it out as a bonus track or something somewhere…

F: Word!  You know we love anything bonus or exclusive – bring on the remix contest!

AH: Oh yeah?  Maybe I will.  We’ll see.

F: Well, you know we heard that you did background vocals for D’Angelo on the “Voodoo” tour… and I think everyone wants to know; do YOU know where D’Angelo is?!

AH: Who told you that?!  {laughs}  Naw, I’m just playin.  In the studio.  He’s in the studio right now, man.  Not to worry.

F: We all also loved your cameo in last year’s “American Gangster” film, and we understand that you’ve done the title track for the forthcoming movie, “Soul Men,” with Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes.  Now that both of them are no longer with us, and given the context of the film’s story, what does this movie mean to you?

>>> “Soul Men” debuts in theaters nationwide this Friday, November 7th – starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, and Issac Hayes, with the title track by Anthony Hamilton!

AH: Well, first of all, I haven’t seen the film yet, so I can only speak from my place as a songwriter for the title track and given the basics of the story, I would just say that it’s about what music means to you… you know, here’s two guys that haven’t been together in a while, and wanting to get back together even though they might not be at their best – it’s about what it means to you at the end of the day.

F: So can we expect a tour this Winter in support of the new album?

AH: Ha!  I’m always on tour. I’m doing dates this week and next.  As long as I can walk, eat, sleep, breathe, and travel, I’ll be doing live shows. How else do you get to go to the Waffle House so often?  That’s how you stay out of the Awful House.  {laughs}   No, but starting November 5th I’ll be doing 6 weeks straight, so keep checking www.anthonyhamilton.com for my tour dates, and all the other news.

—Interview by Jocelyne Ninneman for Fusicology

>The album is “The Point of it All” due out on Zomba/So So Def Records this December 2nd, 2008.

>Listen out for “Cool” featuring David Banner, already in rotation, and the video also due out in November.

>As always, check Fusicology.com for Anthony’s tour dates, which begin November 5th.