brilliantbrown

Okay, just look at these guys and tell me you aren’t at least a little curious about what they sound like. You may notice the name Sa-Ra from the Kanye West mixtape posted by AJ yesterday.

A few weeks ago, my brother came to visit me. We were talking about music and he mentioned a pair of albums he’d recently purchased. The first was Gym Class Heroes, a name I recognized. The second was Sa-Ra. What? Who’s Sa-Ra and why should I care? I didn’t get a chance to listen to the album that day, but before my brother left town, I made sure to burn a copy for myself.

When I finally got around to listening to it, I was taken a bit off guard.

okay, who/what is Sa-Ra?

That was my first question too. Being lazy, I checked Wikipedia first. Apparently, these guys have been around since 2005, but the Hollywood Recordings (2007) is the only album listed. So that basically tells me nothing… neither does their website, but there are some good tracks to listen to there. And, as much as I hate linking to MySpace, their page there also has some good tracks to listen to.

Being more producers than artists, this album has many great guest stars. Bilal, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Pharaohe Monch and J. Dilla, amongst others, give this album a well rounded feel. Now that I think of it… Talib Kweli is on just about every album I listen to these days. And you’d think Bilal’s first name was “Featuring”. When’s that guy gonna put out a new album? I think his last solo effort was Soul Sista back in 2001.

what does it sound like?

The first time I listened to this, I skipped right through it. I’m thinking I was in a pretty high energy mood and this album’s laid back mood was a bit offputting at the time. About a week later, I hit play on this while at work and it’s been in HEAVY rotation on the ol’ iPod ever since.

If your idea of a night out involves popping, dropping and/or locking, this probably isn’t the album for you. This is one of the few recent hip-hop albums that I can recommend to the grown and sexy crowd.

With only a few exceptions, this is a very mellow album. Though technically classified as hip-hop, this is partially an R&B album as well. It starts out as more of an R&B album with heavy hip-hop influences, then ends with more of hip-hop lean. The whole album caries a downtempo electronica vibe and strong hints of soul. By strong hints of soul and R&B influences, I don’t mean sample-happy. As a matter of fact, there aren’t any discernible samples that I can pick right out. I sounds like the whole thing is original production and I can’t help but think that it would sound even better performed with a live band accompaniment.

standout tracks, good and bad

The best tracks include Hey Love, Glorious and So Special feat. Rozzi Daime. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that these tracks are all lumped at the beginning. I also think it’s funny that Rozzi Daime is on one of the best AND one of the worst songs on the album, but more on that later. What’s important is that at least these aren’t the only good tracks on the album. The whole album is consistently cool and high quality. These aren’t songs that were just slapped together in a month.

It’s not all good though. Two tracks (Not On Our Level ft Capone-N-Noreaga and Tracy feat. Rozzi Daime) stand out as sore thumbs amidst this otherwise awesome album. The Capone-N-Noreaga track is way too abrasive for the mood set by the rest of the album. Sa-Ra develops a nice chilled out mood, then out of nowhere C-N-N come to kill you buzz shouting “Niggas not on our level! Hoes not on our level!” Just when I was feeling good and grown, this song feels pretty immature and out of place on the album. Consequently, it gets skipped every time.

The track called Tracy featuring Rozzi Daime also gets skipped. Like I said, Rozzi is on one of the best tracks, So Special, singing and it’s great. However on Tracy, she raps… poorly. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’ve been conditioned to dislike female MCs, but the song just comes off as raunchy and phoned in. The production of this track is pretty slipshod to boot. Why is it that when female MCs get a microphone, all they talk about is sex? It’s a shame, because she has such a nice singing voice, but if she insists on rapping, her career is going nowhere… fast.

In my opinion, this is a great party album for young black professionals. You could literally drop this in the CD tray and let it ride in the background of a social mixer and not have to worry about the music for an hour. Most of the tracks are dance-able despite their smooth flow.

where’s the link?

Sorry, but I’ve got no link right now. I got my copy off of my brother. I’ll look and see if I can find one and update the post when I do. Here’s something to hold you over.