Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
Hello, my children. Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. I got Andy and Don with me. Andy, how you doing, friend?
Hey there, buddy. Doing well. You know, I'm just sitting here. I got the light stims. I lit a single candle.
Got a little incense burning in the corner. Don, old chum. What's up?
Seems like we got like a high pressure system moving in.
It's a low pressure.
Oh, it's low.
All right. So this is the Album Nerds podcast. It's a podcast. We talk about albums. We love them. And hopefully so do you.
We got a great show for you today. We're going to be talking about albums that have songs from the Quiet Storm radio format.
And we'll get a little more in depth on what that is in a minute.
But first, we're going to talk a little bit about how we got there, stuff we listened to in the past week to make our selections.
And we'll get to those. We'll each pick an album.
We're going to answer a question that's loosely related to our Quiet Storm topic today.
And then we'll figure out what we learned.
And we're going to spin the wheel of musical destiny to find out what we'll talk about on the next episode.
But this week, it's all about that Quiet Storm.
That's what I'm talking about.
Quiet Storm is a radio format and genre of R&B performed in a smooth, romantic jazz influenced style.
It was named after the title song on Smokey Robinson's 1975 album, A Quiet Storm.
The radio format was pioneered in 1976 by Melvin Lindsay while he was an intern at the Washington, D.C. radio station WHUR-FM.
It eventually became regarded as an identifiable subgenre of R&B.
Quiet Storm was marketed to upscale mature African-American audiences during the 1980s and fell out of favor with young listeners in the age of hip hop.
But its legacy continues into pop music today.
Each of us will present an album with a song that would be played on a Quiet Storm radio station.
All right. So, fellas, how do we do in this Quiet Storm?
Do we have an umbrella? Do we get soaked? What's the deal?
Oh, man, I got drenched by some Teddy Pendergrass.
Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. I know.
It's impossible for your hands to not slowly start caressing your own cheek when you listen to Teddy Pendergrass.
Yeah, Teddy P. He goes to another level with the Quiet Storm genre here.
So I listened to a couple of his records. Both were pretty awesome in the 70s.
L. Green, the Let's Stay Together.
A little too bluesy, a little too poppy, I guess, for what I thought the genre sounded like.
And I'll shout out a more recent record from a group called Rye called Woman.
Came out in 2013. Excellent, you know, kind of soft jazz vocal thing going on and fits this space pretty well.
I stumbled on that one, too.
And a lot of the things that now would kind of fall into that category are even jazzier, I think, than a lot of the 1980s era Quiet Storm stuff.
So, yeah, I did some Pendergrass myself, smoked that Pendergrass.
Yeah, I just it felt too uncomfortable to play and talk to you guys about.
It's very intimate. Yeah.
I don't think I could like I run Zoom, but even making eye contact on Zoom, I can do it and talk about it.
Yeah. So Tony Braxton, her first album, Luther Vandross.
I listened to a bunch of his records. The 80s output was probably the sexiest.
But yeah, I mean, I kind of stuck in that realm, but then was looking for something that might be a little more modern, at least in this century, barely.
And that's where I ended up landing. How about you, Don? How did you do?
Well, we had done it before. We did the Barry White, Can't Get Enough, not too long ago.
And that would have been a good one to do, I think.
I actually I checked out Sade. She's not somebody I ever really paid much attention to, but I know she's highly regarded.
So I did want to spend some time with that record. But I believe you guys discussed it quite a while ago.
Diamond Life. Yep, Diamond Life.
That would have been my first pick here. Yeah, it's a good one.
Yeah. And then Anita Baker, Rapture. I remember, I think I remember watching like the Grammys that year.
And she was nominated in like every category. And it just seemed like kind of old people music to me at the time.
That's we did that. Andy and I did on the show a while back. And that was exactly what I said.
At the time, I thought of it as like old people music, but mostly is because they were they were old enough to have sex and I was not.
So maybe that's why I didn't. Maybe someday, buddy. I'll get there.
So I ended up kind of going further back in time with my pick.
All right. Well, now that the picks are in, let's do this.
You chew, chew, chew me.
And so students, my children, this is Venus Flytrap inviting you to join me on a telescope ride of incredible distances and joyous harmonies.
As we spin, and summer salt into the night of meaty velvet. Now a little taste of honey.
Oh, yes. Those telescope rides.
What is with the bells?
You know, Venus Flytrap of WKRP had some props and you like to use the chimes and then a gong.
In the era before soundboards.
Well, for my quiet storm selection here, we are starting with the album that started the whole movement itself.
Talking about Smokey Robinson and his 1975 album, A Quiet Storm.
This is the third studio album for the soul singer from Detroit, Michigan.
Really solidified Robinson as a solo artist and songwriter after his career with the Miracles was coming to a close.
Yeah, let's play a little bit of the title track.
This is Quiet Storm.
Quiet Storm, blowing through my life.
Yeah, that song. Wow. I was really impressed by that track.
I really came to appreciate this album as a whole after listening to it for a while.
He gets a great groove going on this record.
Three words I used to describe it are hypnotized by the storm.
I think Smokey kind of gets you under his spell here.
Kind of works his magics on you.
And I don't know, man. I was a believer by the end of this record.
Really well written, intriguing songs.
It's a pretty short record coming in a little over 30 minutes and only seven tracks.
But each one really, I think, stands well on its own, covers a lot of ground.
And he really gives a really passionate, charismatic vocal performance, I felt.
His voice is like very soft and smooth and sensual, but it's very nimble.
He's like up and down and all over and creating all these interesting melodies.
The question when I hear him, especially on this record, when he sings, the way he sings,
like I think of silk sheets, but then I thought maybe it's more satin.
So what do you guys think? Silk or satin for Smokey?
When Smokey sings, I hear violins.
He inspired others.
Very nice.
So silk or satin?
Satin.
I would go satin, I think. I think, you know, high thread count.
From now on, that's how we should rate all albums by their thread count.
I think what stood out to me most listening to this record, you know, a fair amount of last week was
the great use of woodwinds.
That's something you hear a lot of records that we talk about on the show here.
A quiet storm, you'd expect some wood to be involved, yeah?
Yes, the flute has been utilized.
If you don't count saxophone as woodwind, then it is sort of unusual.
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Yeah, I think the band really holds its own here and plays really, really tight with Smokey's vocals.
They're right and locked up through these tracks here and it keeps things moving and kept me really engaged.
And I, you know, like I've enjoyed Smokey.
I remember him a lot growing up.
I feel like he was in all the shows I watched growing up.
Smokey was a big part of that scene or whatever.
But I never heard this album and I really came to really appreciate it.
He had radio hits even into the 80s, so he never fully went away.
And he got mentioned in a lot of different songs.
Yeah, obviously very influential.
Yeah, really was in the forefront of the forest fire cause.
Only you can prevent wildfires.
Hello there.
Am I that predictable?
All right, well, here's another track from the record.
This is a little bit of Happy Love Theme from Lady Sings the Blues.
So that song actually comes from the film Lady Sings the Blues, which was released in 1972 and was about the singer Billie Holiday.
The melody was composed by, I think it's Michelle LeGrand.
The melody appears in the film, but Robinson didn't actually add lyrics to the song until after the film was released.
The song was originally recorded by Bobby Darin and then by Michael Jackson.
So Smokey finally takes a crack at it here in 1975.
The lyrics are so cool.
I guess that's one thing that kind of surprised me with this album is, I mean, his lyrics are relatively simple, but they're still kind of clever.
I just like the line, my life began when happy smiled.
That's good stuff.
The three words I chose to describe the album, look out Marvin and Stevie.
So this is right around that time where you have Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder putting out these epic albums.
And it's like Smokey had to answer with his own.
I mean, this one's a little different because it's more romantic, whereas those were kind of tackling social issues and stuff.
But I feel in terms of just the hugeness of the record, it still kind of has that big feel to it with all the orchestration.
I think it's a cohesive masterpiece, I think.
All the songs are unique, but they tie together.
I love the 70s R&B because I think they finally embraced the album as a format.
Because I tend to think of early Motown and even Aretha Franklin and stuff.
Just singles.
Yeah, exactly.
So particularly Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye really, I think, elevated that genre.
I was going to follow up on that.
There's some loose concept album elements to this.
The album opens and closes and a couple of tracks as well feature kind of like this wind blowing through or stormy background sounds.
Well, I think that those atmospherics and I think Smokey kind of created this romantic world.
And I think within that was like stormy nights and stormy under those satin sheets as well.
So I think because of how this album was done and those atmospherics and that theme, that's why it spawned an entire radio genre.
So that's pretty cool.
Take that Marvin.
OK.
Why don't we play what was the lead single from the album?
This is Baby, That's Back At You.
I love the flutey stuff going on there because his voice works with it so well.
The quality of his voice does have it does have a woodwind quality to it.
Yeah, something airy to it like that's unique.
Yes. So that song just really has a great vibe to it, expresses romantic sentiments.
Obviously, I think it probably came from someone saying I love you and saying back at you, you know, because I feel like all the feelings are bouncing back and forth between them.
I like that.
It feels like fresh love.
So three words I used to describe this album, gusting vocals forecasted as I alluded to earlier that the airiness.
The airiness of all of it, the instrumentation, his voice, the storm rain theme, like it feels like you're caught up in this.
And sometimes that's what love can feel like, especially in the early stages of a relationship that it does feel like there's this quiet storm brewing and it's.
You can't control it, you know, and I think that's the sums it up fairly well.
The album is lyrically compelling.
Every song held my attention.
It went too fast, which is pretty short, but his just his voice is so well suited to this.
You know, and he's still trying to do it.
80 something years old.
The album that came out this past year, Gazzams.
Let's not bring Gazzams into this.
Well, he talks about eargasms and different.
It's all different kinds of Gazzams that this person brings these shutters of joy to him.
Yeah, I watched a performance of his.
I didn't name the album.
But along that point, I watched a performance of him from like a year or two ago to like an hour and a half long concert.
He was really good.
He's still like dancing around and still getting the ladies to scream at him.
All right.
Well, I don't know.
I'm debating how the fame for this.
I really like it.
It's not exactly given me Gazzams, but.
Well, you know, no, no, no, no, smokey can get away with it. You, sir, cannot.
Yeah. All right. All right.
I didn't think we'd have a quiet storm album in the Hall of Fame, but I'm going to I think this one's worthy.
So, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to nominate Smoky Robinson's Quiet Storm for the Album Nerds Hall of Fame.
I think it's a very unique record.
The sound, you know, obviously created kind of a subgenre here and every track is really strong.
So, yeah, it's I think it's a Hall of Fame worthy for me.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, I think so, too.
He's a legendary voice and he's a legendary songwriter.
And I think this is probably the the album to put in.
I had never heard it before.
Honestly, like I wasn't that familiar with his solo output.
So, yeah, absolutely. It genre defining his his contribution to changing music in that period, changing what soul music could be.
So right on.
All right. Well, that was Smoky Robinson.
A quiet storm.
I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and doggone it.
People like me.
If you're enjoying the show and we deeply hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy.
Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.
All right, my children.
This is WKRP in Cincinnati.
You're listening to Venus Flight Rap, the first officer of funk.
Clarence from the tower seatbelts fastened.
Headphones on.
The students will start dancing.
Well, my pick for a quiet storm record goes back a couple more years to 1973.
This is Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack.
It's the fifth studio album by the vocalist and pianist born Roberta Cleopatra Flack in Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1937.
Let's hear the one song that was listed on several of the quiet storm song lists.
This is Killing Me Softly with his song.
So that song was composed by Charles Fox, who's kind of a semi-famous film composer, actually did the music for one of Dude's favorite films, Strange Brew.
It features lyrics by Norman Gible, who actually did a lot of lyrics for television themed songs like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.
And we also have well, well, to put it in context, TV show theme songs used to actually be full length songs, many of which got played on radio as well.
Now, you know, they're much shorter, generally speaking.
But yeah, they were epics back then.
Yes.
And this also featured lyrics from Lori Lieberman.
And then actually Lieberman was inspired by a Don McLean performance she attended in 1971, particularly of a song called Empty Chairs.
So, you know, all that. That's Don McLean, which is kind of surprising. I pictured it being Marvin Gaye.
That's what I always heard, you know, like strumming my pain with his finger.
Like this is someone that's got a moving voice, not a meh, meh, meh type of voice.
And apparently Lori was was moved. I always heard that this was inspired by Marvin Gaye.
Roberta Flack saw him and was writing about him. But it was like 17 other people writing and not her.
Lieberman actually recorded the song in 1971.
Did you listen to it?
Yes, I did.
How was it?
It's all right.
She's no Roberta Flack and she's no Lauryn Hill.
Anyway, so the three words I chose to describe the album are warm, sophisticated soul.
I think Roberta Flack has a unique place in the world of R&B and soul.
You know, she doesn't sound like like the others and she seems to be, you know, just as informed by classical music as R&B and soul.
She has a pleasant voice. I mean, it's a lovely voice, but it's not, you know, she's not Aretha Franklin.
It's more about the song.
You know, I think a lot of times with people like Aretha Franklin, the songs are just sort of like a device for her to kind of show off her vocal talents.
And I think Roberta Flack does a good job of bringing the song and the lyrics and the melody to the forefront.
You know, in some circles, people would criticize her for kind of like a lack of edge or rawness or a lack of soul or something.
But yeah, I really enjoyed this album. I like her voice a lot.
I think there's a lot of sincerity in it.
There's sadness. And of course, that's often what draws me in is melancholy.
And there's a sadness and a vulnerability in most of these songs.
And I think it's a you know, it's an interesting collection, you know, with lots of different songwriters represented.
Janis Ian, Leonard Cohen and so on. But I, you know, overall, I think it's, you know, it's a solid record.
Anyway, well, let's hear more.
There's a Leonard Cohen song, Suzanne.
Damn. You know, one of the things I like about this song is it's it takes you on this journey.
And she does such a great job of taking Leonard Cohen's story about about his friend, Suzanne Verdahl.
And the lyrics vividly portrayed like the rituals they would do when they would hang out together.
He would visit her in Montreal Harbor and they would have tea and stroll the old Montreal.
And and he just describes all this stuff so perfectly.
And the you know, that she goes to Salvation Army and you can just picture this person and these encounters.
But the way that Roberta Flack is able to the way she uses her voice, it's smoky like in a way in terms of the what she can do with it, the kind of emotions that she brings out.
And there are very few performers like this that don't that really, at least from what I saw, don't write a lot of their own stuff that make things so much her own that it doesn't matter.
You know, and they're her songs. The three words I used to describe this album were sing us a song.
You're the piano woman. It kind of is it's that same kind of feel like Billy Joel and his early stuff would would portray.
I mean, she's better vocally, but it feels like a piano bar singer just belting it out, you know, and it's warm and inviting.
And the album covered more styles than I expected, but the soul shines through regardless of the type of song and Killing Me Softly.
Obviously, she just nails that song, too.
Yeah, no, I totally agree. It's mostly record or as an entire record cover song stuff.
Yeah. Well, they're not they're not necessarily covers. They're just not written by her. Some written for her.
Yes. All right. Well, let's hear another one. This is No Tears in the End.
Yeah, that's probably my favorite cut off of this album here.
I love the sort of like she had some gospel and some soul flavor on that track and some good, good horns and percussion come in and help move things along.
Three words I use to describe this album are killing me with inconsistency.
That is great.
I like a bird of flack. I've listened to a lot of her records for this show.
I think this collection of songs is just average in my opinion. They're good, but they don't fit very well together as an album.
At least I didn't feel like listening through this. They're just kind of all over the place in terms of tone and style.
Obviously, Killing Me Softly is a classic and I think her version is the definitive version.
But the other tracks, I know Jessie was like the second single out this album I believe and a pretty popular song at the time.
Man, I could not get into that song. I felt like that was just totally derailed the record for me.
It's a very quiet song about someone named Jessie and I felt like the whole album just came to a grinding halt at that point.
There's a few interesting moments after that. I did appreciate Suzanne. I thought that was a pretty cool closer.
But then When You Smile is almost like a show tune sort of.
It is. Yeah, that one's been done a bunch of times. I was not super into that either. It felt like it was from a musical.
Yeah. But she's great on piano and her voice is unique and I think high quality.
I mean, I enjoy the record as a whole. It's a Quiet Storm album. I don't know if it fits that genre perfectly.
But you know, there's definitely some elements here for sure.
There's some drizzles.
Yeah. Partially cloudy.
Okay. So from 1973, that was Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack.
Ah, Flack!
Nice.
Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Now it's time for Deep Questions by Dom.
So radio DJs help to shape the Quiet Storm sound.
What DJs do you consider among the most influential to yourself in the music scene?
Besides DJ Tanner.
I mean, the first one that came to mind for me growing up was Casey Kasem, you know, his Countdown show on Saturdays, I want to say it was, or Sundays.
You know, he was kind of a douche, but he did have an iconic voice and...
Wow.
At least that's what I thought.
Did a lot of cartoon voices too.
Yeah, Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
He's Shaggy? No kidding. I did not know that.
And I'll give a shout out to a local DJ who did influence me a fair amount in terms of my exploration of like indie music.
There's a local station here called WBER in Rochester.
WBER, the only station that matters.
One of their long time DJs, Joey Gusto.
Gusto? I feel like that's a missed opportunity to be Joey Gusto.
I think it's Gusto. Am I wrong, Dom?
I thought it was Justo. Let's not tag him.
His first name is definitely Joey.
Anyways, he did a great independent music show that I got into and introduced me to a lot of new artists.
I appreciated him.
I'll just throw out there, I mean, Howard Stern, obviously not like a music DJ.
He was.
Yeah, initially he was.
But then he kind of created his own talk radio format, which growing up in the 90s was pretty enticing for a teenage kid to listen to.
It was pretty into him for a while.
How about you guys?
Well, for me, there was a radio station when I was like middle school age and they play like all the top 40 stuff.
And there was this DJ on there called Hot Scott.
Hot Scott. Nice.
I actually like he was on some local TV commercials and stuff.
And Hot Scott. And I couldn't stand him.
But I like the station. So.
So, yeah, I think for me, it was just those regional guys with the goofy names.
And of course, Wolfman Jack.
He was he was known through the 60s for like kind of almost pirate radio type of thing and into the 70s where he had this really kind of voice like this.
Wolfman Jack.
Exactly. And he ended up like on cartoons and stuff in the in the 70s.
So he was just kind of like this pop cultural character that just had a cool name.
And then, of course, Wink Martindale, host of Tic Tac Doe Game Show.
But before that, he was a he was a DJ.
He's kind of known for breaking Elvis Presley on WHBQ.
They started playing Elvis Presley's That's All Right on July 5th, 1954.
And he was forever linked to Elvis and a lot, you know, Dick Clark and a lot of a lot of guys that we know from from TV and from music related television.
All came from radio back in those days.
So I'll quickly shout out to the poor man's Casey Kasem Rick Dees.
Yes, I remember like American Top 40 would be on Sunday mornings.
But if I was listening at Saturday night would be Rick Dees.
Yep. Yep.
And remember, there'd be like a segment where it was I forget if it was a song that stunk or something.
Dees Sleaze.
Remember that? Oh, yeah.
I was actually, you know, when I saw this question, I was thinking of Shadow Stevens.
Oh, that's another good one.
Smooth pipes.
No, I was actually a more obscure pick.
There was a show that was syndicated on a local radio station called Rock Over London.
Oh, here we go.
That, of course, featured music from the UK.
And there's a guy named Paul Sexton who has a really, really nice.
Yeah. And a nice British accent.
So just everything, just any artist's name he would say, I'd be like, oh, that sounds really cool.
I got to check that out.
Anyway, so who's your favorite radio DJ?
Hit us on the socials, Instagram, Facebook and threads.
Also the Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord.
This is Venus, my children.
Here we sit.
And let the sounds of music creep in our ears.
Soft stillness in the night become the touches of sweet harmony.
Oh, Mr.
Wow.
OK, so I went a little more recent with D'Angelo and his album Voodoo from January 25th, 2000.
So at least we made it into this century.
So Michael Eugene Archer, better known by his stage name D'Angelo,
American singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer,
and has three full length studio albums over a super long career.
Fascinating character.
The album Voodoo was his second.
It incorporates elements of funk, soul, jazz and rock.
So this is Untitled. How does it feel?
I'm going to make love to you woman.
Gonna lay you down by the fire.
Oh, he's good.
Oh, D'Angelo.
Yes.
So Untitled, how does it feel?
That song was pretty big,
conceived as a tribute to the iconic musician Prince,
who was obviously an influence of D'Angelo's vocal style.
And the production of the song was a collaborative effort with D'Angelo and Raphael Siddiq,
who we've talked about before from Tony Tony Tony.
And that kind of tracks, right?
You know, Raphael Siddiq's solo stuff is very quiet stormish as well.
The recording session took place at Electric Ladies Studios.
Features a signature 6'8 time, which usually Don gets into,
but it does have this distinctive feel that aligns with traditional soul.
But it also sounded very modern with the hip hop oriented beats,
but then still Quest loves drumming being very organic sounding.
And yeah, I mean, the songs lyrics are basically very sexy.
It's about intimacy and a super sweaty song.
Do you guys remember its influence at the time, the video where he's like, appears to be nude?
You guys remember that?
He's got those lower abs like that triangle.
Oh, I know. Yeah.
How demand is out of this world.
I don't know.
Yeah.
All the time I was working at a music store and we had a in store play DVD music videos
and a couple of TV screens.
And when that would come on,
I've never experienced this before or since.
Every lady didn't matter how old, race, religion, nothing mattered.
If that was on, they were staring at the screen.
It was, it was, I always felt very uncomfortable standing at the counter
with like five or six ladies staring at D'Angelo longingly.
So, mission accomplished on that one, D'Angelo.
He's a good looking guy.
Yeah.
The album in three words, Enigmatic Soul Elevation.
It brought it to, it brought this neo soul thing to a different level with the hip hop influence,
with his ragged vocals, just a masterpiece.
And I'm really annoyed with myself for ignoring it at the time.
I wrote it off as being sex late and garbage.
It didn't have any substance, but man, was I wrong.
It's a long album, but I really enjoyed it.
Why don't we move forward?
Let's listen to a little bit of Send It On.
I think that was the fourth single from the album, the first one they recorded.
It's about his newborn son.
Really, his lyrics are so, I don't know, they feel deep, but they're hard to deconstruct.
I mean, a lot of times they just feel not nonsensical, but they're more about the vibe
and the feeling and the emotion behind things.
But I really love his performance on that track.
I mean, the whole album is just, he's great on this.
The three words I used to describe it are deep and steady.
I feel like everything about this record is just like dense and just has a lot of depth to it.
I mean, obviously the bass and the drums are there, but just the vibe,
everything about this record just has a great vibe to it.
I mean, it's kind of sleepy and muted sounding,
but I think there's a lot of cool details and precision.
When listening closely, there's a fair amount that's happening here and it works.
It works well together.
I mean, I think it might be one of the better sounding records from the 2000s.
I can think of everything just sounds great.
Mixed really well too.
Yeah.
Well, the Soul Quarians, he's a member of the Soul Quarians.
You familiar with this, guys?
What's that?
Rotating collective of experimental black music artists during the 1990s and early 2000s.
D'Angelo, Questlove, J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Pino Palladino, Tlaib Queli, Common.
Q-tip.
A bunch of those people would come in and out of each other's projects.
And the number of contributors to this album, guitarists and composers and Questlove doing the drums
and a lot of the roots being involved, it definitely has that feel.
It felt super modern, but also super throwback for the time.
The only track left and right was the only one that I found to be...
Yeah, I totally agree, man.
That's the track with Method Man and Red Man on it.
Yeah.
It's just the style of the time.
The song itself sounds pretty cool, but their verses in particular, it's not for me.
It's a little too graphic and not...
Part of what makes stuff Quiet Storm to me and sexy is when it's innuendo.
Yeah, it's a little more subtle.
Not just stuff about asses or whatever.
It's just not...
You need to be hinting.
Yeah.
It's supposed to be a little less misogynistic, I think.
So that's the only song I think has not aged well, but otherwise they're all awesome.
Chicken Grease has that funky...
Oh yeah, I love that track.
...feel and then Pino Palladino playing the bass.
The bass throughout this album is just so...
And the guitars have that.
They have a liquidy feel almost.
Got that wobble.
Yeah, which adds to the sweatiness throughout the record.
I would say it's got a loose hangout vibe to the record because it has got that big
group collaborating.
But like I was saying, yeah, it feels very meticulously structured when you listen to
it.
I don't know.
It's a strange middle ground they found.
Why don't we enjoy a little bit of the Devil's Pie?
So that song was composed by D'Angelo and DJ Premier, who I believe we've talked about
before because he was a member of Gangstar.
Yes.
And that's definitely one of the most hip hoppy tracks on the album.
And it's the second one.
So I think it gives the record some good momentum.
And the song basically just deals with your excess money and commercialism.
So the three words I chose to describe the album are a quiet derecho.
Do you guys know what a derecho is?
It doesn't sound like you do either.
I don't know if I pronounced it right.
It's like a storm that kind of...
It's a series of wind storms that just continues and continues for a long time.
Okay.
That's perfect.
Right.
So this is a long musical journey.
So it transcends quiet storm in a lot of ways.
It was fun starting with Roberta Flack and then to Smokey and now to this because you
have that hip hop influence that comes in.
I'm generally not a huge fan of music from this era because again, I also worked at a
record store at that time.
There was just a lot of stuff that I wasn't into at the time.
But this is one that certainly stands out from that era.
And it's kind of borrowing sort of like the best from each realm, from R&B and from hip
hop.
You mentioned Tony, Tony, Tony.
Remember we did that Tony, Tony album that I think was from like 1990.
It's amazing the difference sonically between that album and this one.
It's completely different even though it's sort of loosely within the same genre.
It's got a lot more of that hip hop, that low end bass in this that you didn't have
in the Tony, Tony, Tony.
Of course, the Tony, Tony, Tony maybe had a little more jazz, but there's elements of
jazz in this as well.
Yeah, for sure.
And we can't get into all the songs like Spanish Joint, which has a salsa influence and Feel
Like Making Love, which a Roberta Flack cover.
Supposedly that was supposed to be a duet with him and Lauryn Hill and some tapes went
back and forth, but it couldn't get done.
Oh, I also read that Lenny Kravitz was brought in to like do some guitar or something on
one of the songs, but he said that he couldn't because the drum tracks were inconsistent
that he just couldn't find the groove.
And I think that's part of what makes this good is it does have, I read that Quest Love
in particular said it needed to feel natural.
So if there were mistakes, if I was off tempo, we went with it.
That was the vibe.
I think that's part of what makes this not feel like that era.
Music felt very canned, right?
Very by numbers.
And this has, it has those elements, but the rawness and, you know, it's sort of like Alicia
Keys from the same timeframe.
I ignored both and I regret it.
And I'm thankful to the show for bringing me around.
I'll be honest, like the main reason I didn't listen to this record in 2000, I was embarrassed
to have his abdomen like associated in my record collection or on Spotify or whatever.
Coming back to it though, it's almost as good as Black Messiah in my opinion.
Yeah, I mean, it's a different subject matter.
Black Messiah touches on some of that, but this doesn't get into social injustice and racism
and stuff too much.
I mean, Devil's Pie gets into a little bit of life on the streets and the temptations
and all that.
But yeah, man, I'm super impressed and all three of his records actually, I'm going to
nominate this for the album Nerds Hall of Fame.
I especially love it when I find an album to nominate that I was unfamiliar with before
doing it for the show.
I love that.
That's part of what makes this so much fun.
So to guess from me, I said a bunch of stuff.
How you guys feel?
Can we have two D'Angelo albums in there?
Yeah, yes, of course.
I mean, you can have more than one Pink Floyd album in there, more than one Marvin Gaye,
and D'Angelo doesn't have much output.
It just happens to be awesome.
Yeah, he takes his time with them.
And this feels like an important album, especially considering that neo-soul movement
and how influential it was and really defining what that was going to sound like at this
time period.
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of his and come to appreciate him a lot over the last couple decades.
Yeah, I definitely see this as a standout album in that era.
I'm not even sure it's a criticism.
I listened to this so many times in the last week and I never found myself getting melodies
stuck in my head or anything.
There weren't any recurring melodies.
Did you have Devil's Pie pounding through your head for a week?
A little bit.
But anyway, but that's okay though.
I don't think every album has to have that and it has more, it's a vibe record, I think,
and it has kind of a consistent vibe throughout it and he really does a great job with that.
So I'll vote yes.
Wow, a quiet storm got pretty loud.
Two album nerds Hall of Famers.
Alright, so D'Angelo, Voodoo, go check it out.
While you're there, you might as well listen to his whole discography.
It'll only take you a few hours.
Alright, so we all explored this sort of mysterious, I don't know, perhaps a better defined genre
than some of the other ones we've discussed in the past, like Yacht Rock.
So what did we learn?
I think for me, I've been listening to so much streaming music the last couple decades,
I've really discounted radio completely.
The value of the DJ, man, they do bring some atmosphere and some context
and when you create a show like a quiet storm show, like that format, it's a cool groove.
There's a local jazz station that does something like that and I kind of like listening to that.
It's very different than listening to a streaming album or a random collection of songs.
It's cool, the DJ does have some value.
Yeah, for me it was really just about succumbing to that sound.
I mean, I've always been aware of it.
There have been songs that I think fit into that and I've heard those radio stations back in the day,
but just letting myself just drop the umbrella and get soaked, it was awesome.
Yeah, I think, I mean, it's a genre that I've always been somewhat adverse to
and I also I think kind of needed to warm up to it.
Yeah, I mean, God, it's just amazing that we chose,
that we ended up putting two of these records in the Hall of Fame.
I would never have thought that.
But yeah, it's pretty cool, a little more depth than we expected.
And that's one to grow on.
I'm your density, I mean your destiny.
All right, boys and girls, gather around the radio
and let's find out what the Wheel of Musical Destiny has in store for us next week.
Your musical destiny is twofold.
First, you should get down.
Secondly, and more importantly, you need to get funky.
You will be exploring albums with funk elements or a funk fusion, if you will enjoy.
Let's get funky.
Just a quick reminder, there are two ongoing album nerds Hall of Fame,
Votes in Progress, go to our website and Discord to cast your vote for the 1982 album Avalon by Roxy Music,
as well as Sly and the Family Zone.
There's a riot going on.
Voting is underway and will be open for another week or so,
but there's a riot going on, so get your votes in as soon as possible.
What's your favorite funk inspired album?
So what else are you listening?
Let us know. Join fellow album nerds on Discord at albumnerds.com slash Discord.
You can email us at podcast at albumnerds.com.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and threads at albumnerds.
Also, please subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite podcast app.
If you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash support.
All right. Thanks for listening once again to the album nerds podcast.
We'll catch you next time when we get funky.
See you next week.
Drumming my pain with this finger.
Singing my life with this word.
Get your heart out, Roberto.
I thought you were going to throw it up one time.
Did you find yourself doing that when listening to her version?
That's pretty annoying.