Tag: Aaron Frazer Introducing

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 5 – 1

We’ve reached the top of the chart. Who takes the prize? You’ll find out soon.

#5: Anika – Change

Good heavens…This album is so lush, haunting, and beautiful that it will sweep you away from whatever you’re doing when you play it. Anika’s voice immediately drapes over you like a luxurious robe with a knife hidden in a back pocket.

#4: Rochelle Jordan – Play with the Changes

Seriously, why aren’t more people going nuts over Rochelle Jordan? She mixes soul, house, disco, and trip hop better than most, and Play with the Changes is, if you ask me, the sexiest album of 2021.

#3: Brijean – Feelings

This lovely mix of trip hop, dream pop, bossa nova, and house music is a delight from start to finish. It was a much-needed tonic during the crappy 365 days of 2021. It’s a perfect spin for any time of year. Got the winter blues? Play this. Need a fun record for that summer beach trip? Play this. Need a boost to start your garden? Play this. Looking forward to sipping hot cider in the fall? Play this.

#2: Aaron Frazer – Introducing…

This solo record from one of the cats in Durand Jones and The Indications is one of the best soul and R&B records of 2021. Frazer puts down his trademark sharp beats and brings his other trademark, high-end vocals, with him to create a groovy, sexy blend that impressed Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys so much that he produced it.

#1: Shame – Drunk Tank Pink

This album got locked into my number one spot not long after it was released. It’s a sharp post-punk record, and I remember being more and more impressed with it after each listen. It covers everything from Brexit and the pandemic to boredom and hope for the future. It’s snarky, witty, and powerful.

There you have it. I hope 2022 is good to all of us.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not start off the new year right by subscribing?]

Review: Aaron Frazer – Introducing…

Aaron Frazer‘s debut album, Introducing…, sounds like it’s played by cats who casually walk into a restaurant where they sometimes have jazz or soul bands play on Friday nights, but are playing on a rare Wednesday evening when they have the good chicken pot pie special, and then are so good that your pot pie becomes cold because you forget to eat it due to being wowed by them.

Introducing… is a sharp R&B / soul record, produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys no less, and Frazer’s first solo record. He’s one of The Indications, as in Durand Jones and The Indications, and is known for his falsetto voice, drum chops, and all-around love of soul, love songs, and grooves.

Opening track, “You Don’t Wanna Be My Baby,” with its horn section back-up and lead bass, let you know right away that you’re in for a treat. Frazer’s voice comes out of your speakers like warm maple syrup. “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It),” inspired by a Teamsters slogan, has a groove you can’t escape – nor do you want to do so.

Fuzzy guitars join the party on “Can’t Leave It Alone” as Frazer delivers a verbal smackdown on his lover for treating him bad, yet he knows he can’t walk away from a hot thing. “Bad News” would make Marvin Gaye proud with its bad-ass 1970s groove, jazz flute, and Frazer’s assured vocals that sound so natural that you think he could just roll out of bed and put down a track like it anytime he wants.

Frazer’s gospel influences are evident on “Have Mercy” – in the title, the backing voices, and Frazer’s pleading to a lover to go easy on him because he’s fallen so hard he might shatter. He’s “Done Lyin'” on the next track, however. The groove on this cut is so good that you’re moving and swaying like you’re one of his backup singers within seconds.

“Lover Girl” is classic soul that sounds like it was found in a Detroit basement near the Motown Studios’ original property. Frazer encourages his lover to take a love journey on “Ride with Me.” He just wants to her take the leap of faith and head off into a groovy sunset with him. Who doesn’t want that?

Big and bold piano and horns start “Girl on the Phone,” then the piano turns downright funky as Frazer sings, “Wish I had someone to love me like this girl I just heard on the phone.” It’s a tale of him overhearing a conversation on a party line (Remember those?) and falling for her just from the sound of the voice, and being envious of the lover to whom she was speaking. Frazer tries to answer a question people have been asking since, well, there have been people on “Love Is.” It’s “what you make it,” according to Frazer, or “anything you make it.” I know I’m in love with the bass groove on the track because it could seduce the coldest of hearts.

The drums on “Over You” (the album’s first single) are as hot as popping popcorn and Frazer’s vocals bounce off the back of the club wall and practically shove you out of your chair to the dance floor. The album ends with “Leanin’ on Your Everlasting Love,” with Frazer and his band laughing as the song begins and sweet organ chords taking us by the hand for another gospel-inspired love song. It’s a lovely send-off.

And it’s a lovely record that I’m sure will be high on my “Best of 2021” list. There isn’t a bad track on it, and Frazer knocks his debut out of the park.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]