FDeluxe posted yet another track from their upcoming album Gaslight today, the track is Drummers and Healers. Can't wait to hear this one live next month!!!

http://www.reverbnation.c...ow/9727444

I really want to like their new stuff, but to me it all sounds so bland and generic.

To me, when I hear the new stuff, I hear a perfect transition from the old to the new. It sounds like the MPLS funk I treasure and miss so much. I can't wait to hear the whole album

Not very exciting to me, but whatever. Just sounds like half-hearted vocals overtop session musicians playing alongside Bean. Yawnzorz.

I'm not really convinced Susannah has the talent to be a bandleader and I'm not sure that St Paul has the charisma. He's a little too meak and she's a little too much - put together, it's just not enough.

To be honest, while this stuff isn't pure gold, it's still better than anything Prince has done since Planet Earth. It's also closer to a more modern version of the MPLSound than the MPLSound album was. To me a lot of their songs sound a little unfinished, sort of like they're missing a finishing touch from a behind the scenes producer.....like Prince lol

Yeah, don't know if St Paul is really the guy to lead the band, a bit too meak is right, and I don't know if susannah really has the vocal chops. That being said @8 is still better than anything on LotusFail3r or 20ten (though those albums are Prince at his worst) and Gaslight seems like it has potential when it's finished.

I was super pumped for this album at first, but it seems to lack the sly, sexual energy of High Fashion or the Driving beat on Mutiny (my two favorites off that album)

I think Susannah certainly looks the part. She has a very edgy sensuality to her. She isn't what I would call a refined beauty, but she certainly is stylish. Her sister definitely aged better, imo. It's not really relevant to their abilities as musicians, just pointing out that the whole package has lots of odd characteristics that make it look haphazard or just not that great.

I feel that this record must have been written on the fly or was too mined over. I can't tell. It's too by the numbers. Hopefully some other tracks on the album pop out a bit more, but "Gaslight" and now "Drummers and Healers" are not really that hot to me. Shit, D&H sounds like a freeform jam that just accidentally became song-like.

Must. Resist. Must. Resist.

NouveauDance said:

Must. Resist. Must. Resist.

pls say it

pls

this would get zero play from me... St Paul bores me. The melodies are too generic.

I consider myself a bit of a MPLS snob and was not a fan of St Paul's solo stuff. But put him with Susannah, Eric and Bean and something great happens. I think it would have been a total joke had they come out trying to sound exactly like the first album, All the Way Voguer, Another Mutiny, More Screams of Passion...but they crafted some great tracks from what I'm hearing. The live show with Wendy & Lisa in Sept is going to be out of this world, I seriously can't wait! Right now I'm watching Paul and Eric rehearsing Leeds Line from the new album on a video clip they posted on their Facebook page and seriously don't understand how critical people are being. Oh well, to each their own.

Love it personally. Every bit as good as the original material - and I wore THAT out...and still do. I guess I'm looking for that "generic" sound elsewhere that you guys are talking about and don't hear it ...so how is this generic? I hear a catchy melody great guitar solo nice groove. As said by some others I don't hear anything else coming out that comes close.

Pleas epoint me in tghe direction of some other contemporary music that sounds like this and I'll buy it

Spinlight said:

Not very exciting to me, but whatever. Just sounds like half-hearted vocals overtop session musicians playing alongside Bean. Yawnzorz.

I'm not really convinced Susannah has the talent to be a bandleader and I'm not sure that St Paul has the charisma. He's a little too meak and she's a little too much - put together, it's just not enough.

Since when has Susannah every positioned herself as a bandleader???

She's always pretty laid back onstage, even during the original Family performances.

Her thing has always been her amazing beauty, her songwriting skills, and her smooth vocals (which I always think are mixed way too low, so you're "too much" comment makes no sense to me)

Spinlight said:

NouveauDance said:

Must. Resist. Must. Resist.

pls say it

pls

I wasn't gonna say something evil, I just meant I must resist downloading another track from the album before it's out, I don't want any more 'spoilers' till the CD's in my hands.

Zannaloaf said:

Love it personally. Every bit as good as the original material - and I wore THAT out...and still do. I guess I'm looking for that "generic" sound elsewhere that you guys are talking about and don't hear it ...so how is this generic? I hear a catchy melody great guitar solo nice groove. As said by some others I don't hear anything else coming out that comes close.

Pleas epoint me in tghe direction of some other contemporary music that sounds like this and I'll buy it

No need to buy, watch TV commercials, hop in an elevator....

Zannaloaf said:

Love it personally. Every bit as good as the original material - and I wore THAT out...and still do. I guess I'm looking for that "generic" sound elsewhere that you guys are talking about and don't hear it ...so how is this generic? I hear a catchy melody great guitar solo nice groove. As said by some others I don't hear anything else coming out that comes close.

Pleas epoint me in tghe direction of some other contemporary music that sounds like this and I'll buy it

I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I respect them all as musicians and people, but honestly, when I listen to these tracks I imagine I'm listening to the soundtrack of some cheezy late-80's action/comedy with Eddie Murphy and (insert random white actor here) and they're riding around in some old beat up car looking save NYC from looming disaster...

But as someone else stated here, to each their own. Everyone has different tastes...

GaryMF said:

Spinlight said:

Not very exciting to me, but whatever. Just sounds like half-hearted vocals overtop session musicians playing alongside Bean. Yawnzorz.

I'm not really convinced Susannah has the talent to be a bandleader and I'm not sure that St Paul has the charisma. He's a little too meak and she's a little too much - put together, it's just not enough.

Since when has Susannah every positioned herself as a bandleader???

She's always pretty laid back onstage, even during the original Family performances.

Her thing has always been her amazing beauty, her songwriting skills, and her smooth vocals (which I always think are mixed way too low, so you're "too much" comment makes no sense to me)

Susannah and St Paul are obviously up front and positioned as bandleaders. Susannah might not have much more than a tamborine in her hand, but she's on the cover of both of their albums and she sings on most of the songs. She might not be the conductor but she is certainly the face.

I do not mean 'too much' as in too crazy. I mean her whole look is this dramatic, aged, femme fashionista and her vocals, while certainly soft, are (to my ears) seemingly always out of place or too contrived. I imagine this song being something Sheryl Crow would've worked on in the early days of the Tuesday Night Music Club. No real lyrics written, just sort of vibing with a milquetoast groove albeit performed by very talented musicians. With Sheryl, I admired her corniness (which was inescapable) and it was charming. With Susannah, I'm not buying it.

I would like to see St Paul and Susannah stop caring so much about being on the cover of GQ and Vogue. Perhaps if they let go a little bit, they would seem more natural. But as it stands, I feel they are stiff and out of practice. Talented people, but the distance between them and good music has widened.

V10LETBLUES said:

Zannaloaf said:

Love it personally. Every bit as good as the original material - and I wore THAT out...and still do. I guess I'm looking for that "generic" sound elsewhere that you guys are talking about and don't hear it ...so how is this generic? I hear a catchy melody great guitar solo nice groove. As said by some others I don't hear anything else coming out that comes close.

Pleas epoint me in tghe direction of some other contemporary music that sounds like this and I'll buy it

No need to buy, watch TV commercials, hop in an elevator....

LMAO!!! So cold, so cold.

Spinlight said:

Susannah and St Paul are obviously up front and positioned as bandleaders. Susannah might not have much more than a tamborine in her hand, but she's on the cover of both of their albums and she sings on most of the songs. She might not be the conductor but she is certainly the face.

I do not mean 'too much' as in too crazy. I mean her whole look is this dramatic, aged, femme fashionista and her vocals, while certainly soft, are (to my ears) seemingly always out of place or too contrived. I imagine this song being something Sheryl Crow would've worked on in the early days of the Tuesday Night Music Club. No real lyrics written, just sort of vibing with a milquetoast groove albeit performed by very talented musicians. With Sheryl, I admired her corniness (which was inescapable) and it was charming. With Susannah, I'm not buying it.

I would like to see St Paul and Susannah stop caring so much about being on the cover of GQ and Vogue. Perhaps if they let go a little bit, they would seem more natural. But as it stands, I feel they are stiff and out of practice. Talented people, but the distance between them and good music has widened.

That needed to be said. I for one think they are being natural though, they are just naturally stiff and not very good. It's like actors who (wanna) become auters, never a good move. Give these guys a good scrpt and excellent direction and they shine. Except live of course, where they have always been at their worst (apologies to Eric and Jellybean), again just like your favourite actor, who dazzles on screen and totally underwhelms sans script. I cant even believe that is Eric on sax

.

[Edited 8/10/11 14:49pm]

Wildboy said:

To be honest, while this stuff isn't pure gold, it's still better than anything Prince has done since Planet Earth. It's also closer to a more modern version of the MPLSound than the MPLSound album was. To me a lot of their songs sound a little unfinished, sort of like they're missing a finishing touch...

Especially the part about being better than anything Prince has done since Planet Earth. Personally I'd go back farther than Planet Earth, but...

Anxiously waiting for Sept 23...

what's with all the BS comments on the look, relationships etc. It's about the music and the trax that are on the website are fantastic. @8 is just about the funkiest thing to come out of MPLS in the last 5 years. As for Eric Leeds, damn I miss his sound- he is THE FUNK!.

This may well end up being one of my fave 'associated artists' CDs of all time and it's great that there's NO INPUT from P.

Good luck to FDeluxe, hope this project brings you much success.

Are we listening to the same tracks????? I can't get into this. The only one I like is @8, everything else is completely forgettable and bland music. No way. Sorry. If you guys like it,, well ok.

DexterDayglo said:

Spinlight said:

Susannah and St Paul are obviously up front and positioned as bandleaders. Susannah might not have much more than a tamborine in her hand, but she's on the cover of both of their albums and she sings on most of the songs. She might not be the conductor but she is certainly the face.

I do not mean 'too much' as in too crazy. I mean her whole look is this dramatic, aged, femme fashionista and her vocals, while certainly soft, are (to my ears) seemingly always out of place or too contrived. I imagine this song being something Sheryl Crow would've worked on in the early days of the Tuesday Night Music Club. No real lyrics written, just sort of vibing with a milquetoast groove albeit performed by very talented musicians. With Sheryl, I admired her corniness (which was inescapable) and it was charming. With Susannah, I'm not buying it.

I would like to see St Paul and Susannah stop caring so much about being on the cover of GQ and Vogue. Perhaps if they let go a little bit, they would seem more natural. But as it stands, I feel they are stiff and out of practice. Talented people, but the distance between them and good music has widened.

That needed to be said. I for one think they are being natural though, they are just naturally stiff and not very good. It's like actors who (wanna) become auters, never a good move. Give these guys a good scrpt and excellent direction and they shine. Except live of course, where they have always been at their worst (apologies to Eric and Jellybean), again just like your favourite actor, who dazzles on screen and totally underwhelms sans script. I cant even believe that is Eric on sax

.

[Edited 8/10/11 14:49pm]

To each his own, but in my opinion, y'all are tripping. And your comments come across more like you have an axe to grind but perhaps I"m wrong.

If you've ever seen them live, (granted they only did 3 shows in 20 years!) you'd now that Paul is the "bandleader", Susannah is more of a co-lead/background singer, even though she is co-writer of the songs.

And live they are great. If you saw them back in 2003 at the Family Jamm you'd know what I'm talking about.

If you think Sheryl crow is better than these guys..... well that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it!

[Edited 8/10/11 22:02pm]

GaryMF said:

DexterDayglo said:

That needed to be said. I for one think they are being natural though, they are just naturally stiff and not very good. It's like actors who (wanna) become auters, never a good move. Give these guys a good scrpt and excellent direction and they shine. Except live of course, where they have always been at their worst (apologies to Eric and Jellybean), again just like your favourite actor, who dazzles on screen and totally underwhelms sans script. I cant even believe that is Eric on sax

.

[Edited 8/10/11 14:49pm]

To each his own, but in my opinion, y'all are tripping. And your comments come across more like you have an axe to grind but perhaps I"m wrong.

If you've ever seen them live, (granted they only did 3 shows in 20 years!) you'd now that Paul is the "bandleader", Susannah is more of a co-lead/background singer, even though she is co-writer of the songs.

And live they are great. If you saw them back in 2003 at the Family Jamm you'd know what I'm talking about.

If you think Sheryl crow is better than these guys..... well that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it!

[Edited 8/10/11 22:02pm]

I have no axe to grind - I don't even know these people. I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here.

"Gaslight" is just okay. It's just alright. This song, however, is not good. Not to me, anyway. And my opinion is my own - no one needs to share it or whatever.

I am looking forward to the CD because 2 songs don't make a record. However, if this is what I should be expecting, then... Well, then I will treat it like I treat many protege records: with neglect. lol.

Spinlight said:

GaryMF said:

To each his own, but in my opinion, y'all are tripping. And your comments come across more like you have an axe to grind but perhaps I"m wrong.

If you've ever seen them live, (granted they only did 3 shows in 20 years!) you'd now that Paul is the "bandleader", Susannah is more of a co-lead/background singer, even though she is co-writer of the songs.

And live they are great. If you saw them back in 2003 at the Family Jamm you'd know what I'm talking about.

If you think Sheryl crow is better than these guys..... well that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it!

[Edited 8/10/11 22:02pm]

I have no axe to grind - I don't even know these people. I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here.

"Gaslight" is just okay. It's just alright. This song, however, is not good. Not to me, anyway. And my opinion is my own - no one needs to share it or whatever.

I am looking forward to the CD because 2 songs don't make a record. However, if this is what I should be expecting, then... Well, then I will treat it like I treat many protege records: with neglect. lol.

fair comment. I think the success of the project though is that they stood up to Prince and won.

GaryMF said:

DexterDayglo said:

That needed to be said. I for one think they are being natural though, they are just naturally stiff and not very good. It's like actors who (wanna) become auters, never a good move. Give these guys a good scrpt and excellent direction and they shine. Except live of course, where they have always been at their worst (apologies to Eric and Jellybean), again just like your favourite actor, who dazzles on screen and totally underwhelms sans script. I cant even believe that is Eric on sax

.

[Edited 8/10/11 14:49pm]

To each his own, but in my opinion, y'all are tripping. And your comments come across more like you have an axe to grind but perhaps I"m wrong.

If you've ever seen them live, (granted they only did 3 shows in 20 years!) you'd now that Paul is the "bandleader", Susannah is more of a co-lead/background singer, even though she is co-writer of the songs.

And live they are great. If you saw them back in 2003 at the Family Jamm you'd know what I'm talking about.

If you think Sheryl crow is better than these guys..... well that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it!

[Edited 8/10/11 22:02pm]

i have no doubt they would sound awesome live, but the cd is not very good imo.

weak track imo: vocals are simply weak. Diggin sanctified and @8 though

[Edited 8/11/11 12:49pm]

V10LETBLUES said:

Zannaloaf said:

Love it personally. Every bit as good as the original material - and I wore THAT out...and still do. I guess I'm looking for that "generic" sound elsewhere that you guys are talking about and don't hear it ...so how is this generic? I hear a catchy melody great guitar solo nice groove. As said by some others I don't hear anything else coming out that comes close.

Pleas epoint me in tghe direction of some other contemporary music that sounds like this and I'll buy it

No need to buy, watch TV commercials, hop in an elevator....

Zannaloaf said:

V10LETBLUES said:

No need to buy, watch TV commercials, hop in an elevator....

gotta wonder what it is most people listen to here. It's true you can simply not LIKE the music, but I ask for something as good or better and get stupid comments like "in an elevator..." I don't believe I have heard music in an elevator since the 80s. TV Commercials? I hear Train, Daft Punk,Massive Attack,Earth Wind and Fire, Feist,Sara Barielles, Beck, Ursula 1000, Vampire Weekend...boring stuff like that. I'd take that company. If your snide comments are dated...what can I say? Beyond the obvious ...why do people feel compelled to come and crap all over a band if they simply don't like them?

It was a joke. For some reason, this site has a monopoly on feelings being disturbed when one person is vocal about their distaste. You know, it says nothing about -you- so why is there this need to explain or elucidate, etc.

I would not call this stereotypical elevator music. Perhaps Ikea music, but not elevator music. Something good or better? That's an easy open to be criticized ad hominem. Taste is subjective. People don't need to share opinions, it's cool.

As for shitting on them? I don't think anyone here is shitting on them and actually I think most comments have been supportive - but we're just not that into it.

Zannaloaf said:

V10LETBLUES said:

No need to buy, watch TV commercials, hop in an elevator....

gotta wonder what it is most people listen to here. It's true you can simply not LIKE the music, but I ask for something as good or better and get stupid comments like "in an elevator..." I don't believe I have heard music in an elevator since the 80s. TV Commercials? I hear Train, Daft Punk,Massive Attack,Earth Wind and Fire, Feist,Sara Barielles, Beck, Ursula 1000, Vampire Weekend...boring stuff like that. I'd take that company. If your snide comments are dated...what can I say? Beyond the obvious ...why do people feel compelled to come and crap all over a band if they simply don't like them?

the music on this cd is just not engaging. i found myself not being able to get through most of the songs except for @8, which was catchy. The songs are very bland and forgettable. I still wish the band the best and must success. if people here are free to be so critical of prince's latest work why can't the same be done for associated artists, if their latest output is not to their liking? just asking.

I can not WAIT to get my hands on Lover, Susannah's vocals are amazing!!