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Best Of R&B 2011

The Top 10 R&B Albums of 2011

by Mosi Reeves

When I took over the Soul/R&B section from Pop, Latin and World editor Rachel Devitt, my ensuing experience was an ear- and eye-opener.

First, I was stunned at how little R&B music comes out. I tallied a little over 100 new releases of note in 2011, a low amount compared to hip-hop and its 300-plus new releases. (It's the reason why I limited this best-of list to only 10 albums.) Blame it on the legacy of the Uptown Records and Bad Boy "jiggy" era, because launching a new R&B artist can still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in imaging, marketing, and radio promotions. The R&B industry hasn't developed an underground market as strong as hip-hop. However, you could argue that specialty imprints like Shanachie and its quiet storm acts, along with Daptone and its retro-soul veterans, are pushing the industry in the right direction.

I also found that R&B tends to develop slower than other genres. Traditional soul, rhythm & blues, funk and smooth jazz artists like Maysa, Lalah Hathaway, Joe, and The Original 7ven (formerly known as The Time) continue to sell records, if the Rhapsody playback charts are any indication. It doesn't matter that they have careers dating back a few decades. However, R&B hasn't completely sacrificed its voice in the pop conversation for loyal but conservative and aging fans.

Every few years, R&B makes an evolution that commands the rest of the music world's attention. Five years ago, it was T-Pain and his Auto-Tuned records; this year, it's the ambient R&B of The Weeknd, Frank Ocean and Drake. You could argue that they simply built on The-Dream's innovations (and, going back further, R. Kelly's) in syllable-extending crooning and diffuse, laptop-generated synthesizer backgrounds, adding disparate influences like '80s new wave, indie rock, dubstep and chillwave. Still, their collective emergence signaled that current trends would once again center on new urban pop, and we could set aside our think pieces on how electronic and hip-hop producers appropriate old '90s R&B and '80s post-disco synth-funk records for samples and remixes.

Unfortunately, The Weeknd's House of Balloons and Thursday, as well as Frank Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra were unlicensed mixtapes, which makes them ineligible for this list. (Other notable mixtapes included J*Davey's Evil Christian Cop: The Great Mistapes, Teedra Moses' Luxurious Undergrind, The-Dream's 1977, and Estelle's AOM: The Prequel.) R&B mixtapes have steadily grown over the years, but in the past they consisted of demo material and freestyle singing over hit beats. 2011 is arguably the first year when they stood among the genre's best recordings. This is part of the continuum R&B shares with hip-hop, where the mixtape model has also become important. Symbiotically, the two scenes influence each other.

Drake epitomizes the R&B and hip-hop crossover. He's technically a hip-hop artist, but his Take Care is one of the best R&B albums of the year. However, this list is ranked according to personal favorites, and it wasn't my no. 1 pick. It's the same reason I left out Rihanna's Talk That Talk, which I didn't like as much as her last album, Loud. Hey, to each his own.

What Were You Hoping For?

Van Hunt

Van Hunt indulges his inner Shuggie Otis on this sprawling funk-rock album. It's as if he made it while sitting on his porch, kicking up his feet on the rail as he strummed on his guitar. The carefree vibe of What Were You Hoping For? is more memorable than loose grooves like "Plum," which wanders so much that it easily fades from memory. Other tracks have unusual asides, whether it's a mysterious French voice during the bridge of "Cross Dresser" or a glam hard rock transition during "North Hollywood." This is a quirky delight that may require multiple listens to appreciate.

Pennies In A Jar

Nikki Jean

Minneapolis singer-songwriter Nikki Jean spent years singing backup for Lupe Fiasco, King Britt and others before commanding the spotlight on Pennies in a Jar. Weaving through girl-group harmonies ("My Love") and Philly soul ("How to Unring a Bell") with audible delight, she's clearly having a ball, and her playfulness is infectious. This charming debut includes contributions from Bob Dylan (who co-wrote "Steel and Feathers"), Burt Bacharach (who co-wrote "Pennies in a Jar") and Lupe and Black Thought, who add raps to "Million Star Motel."

No Time For Dreaming (Re-issue)

Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley is a funk performer who busked around New York City for decades before Thomas Brenneck, leader of the Menahan Street Band, invited him to record some tracks. The result was years of 7-inches, including the widely acclaimed lament "The World (Is Going Up in Flames)" and then, finally, this debut album. Bradley is a James Brown throwback, and he sings in a raw scream on songs that burn with emotion, from "Golden Rule" to "How Long." As part of the Daptone crew, the Menahan Street Band know how to mute the retro-funk arrangements and let Bradley exorcise some demons.

Break Of Dawn

Goapele

Goapele's voice is a high contralto that generates exceptional frisson. When she turns it on the synthesizer funk of "Milk & Honey," she generates an overwhelming heat. Her dominant presence turns the songs on Break of Dawn, her first album in six years, into mere subtext, and it's fun to hear her use the urban erotica of "Play" and "Undertow" for a showcase of her vocal talent. It's an area that she sticks to with few exceptions -- she sings of persevering over obstacles on "Break of Dawn," and life as a single mother on "Hush" -- but she does it better than most.

How Do You Do

Mayer Hawthorne

It's only right that Mayer Hawthorne breaks out his Michael McDonald impersonation on How Do You Do: Both aspire to soul music that's authentic and without "blue-eyed" qualifiers, and redefined that category in the process. He hasn't changed since 2009's A Strange Arrangement, but this album is better produced, and songs like "A Long Time" have stronger musical arrangements. His retro-soul persona is still gimmicky, but that's not a bad thing: The '70s doo-wop of "Get to Know You," and Snoop Dogg's off-key vocal on "Can't Stop" are cute and cuddly in all the right ways.

The Light Of The Sun

Jill Scott

Four years after the slightly downbeat The Real Thing and Ms. Scott's still recovering from her divorce. But at least she's having fun playing the field on The Light of the Sun, tossing off "Le BOOM Vent Suite" with audible delight and graphically describing love on "So Gone (What My Mind Says)." But she admits to loneliness, too. "I'm afraid for me," she sings on "Hear My Call." "Love has burned me." Although a few songs sound unfinished, particularly "Missing You," Scott could never make a boring neo-soul record. There's too much power in those "Rolling Hills."

Where It All Begins

Lalah Hathaway

On Where It All Begins, Lalah Hathaway works through a series of urban adult contemporary styles, from the up-tempo groove of "If You Want To" (which is begging for a deep house remix) and neo-soul of "Where It All Begins" to the bedroom bump-and-grind of "This Could Be Love" and pop rock of "Wrong Way." These are songs about falling in and out of love and, in the case of the heartbreaking "Wrong Way," trying to escape a bad situation, and Hathaway has a sympathetic and sensitive voice that makes them sound warm and comforting.

Take Care

Drake

For Take Care, Drake re-ups the lush R&B romanticism of 2010's Thank Me Later, albeit with a twist. "I know I exaggerated things/ But now I got it like that," he says on "Headlines," where he threatens to use his bodyguards on haters. (What happened to Gang Starr's "Suckas Need Bodyguards"?) Big cars, pliant women and deliciously ambient beats from Boi-1da and Noah "40" Shebib inspire this tastefully appointed exercise in debauchery. But Drake's not too famous to beg to girls on "Marvin's Room" and the title track, even if it sounds more like a booty call than true love.

Stone Rollin'

Raphael Saadiq

Raphael Saadiq continues his retro soul revival with Stone Rollin'. He moves between bluesy rave-ups like "Heart Attack" and lush romances like "Good Man," and references past legends like Sly & the Family Stone and Bo Diddley. Stone Rollin' isn't all fun and games, though. He sings about redemption on "Go to Hell," while "The Answer" finds him pleading for more community involvement in children's lives. Remembering his youth in Oakland, he sings, "I was the boy in the little picture," knowing he wouldn't have become one of modern soul's great innovators without mentors.