how many of you are familiar with this dude and his new lp?

http://www.youtube.com/wa...suBQ7hcJHU

Love Tonex's work.....I'll have 2 check out the new stuff. I just picked up, The Orphans, Steel & Velvet, and some other stuff last week.

u want the link?

viciuzurban said:

Sure.

Thanks.

Hummm.....this song was on one of cd's from about 6 years ago.
What's up with that?

sent!

I know his stuff. He's been in an interesting spot, in recent years. Headspace, I mean.

viciuzurban said:

Familiar with him - but not his new lp. Sounds interesting - Tonex is great!

viciuzurban said:

I freakin LOVE Tonex! Yes I'm very familiar with this super-talented genius lol! He's got all the creativity that the current music industry lacks. Thanks for the headsup about his new cd--definitely will be getting it!

You can listen to some of it on his Myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/theofficialtonex


Garycap23 where did you get the Steel & Velvet cd? Is it available on Itunes?

I just got the album in the mail. Listening to it now.....

just to give you my first impressions, the first four songs were WACK as hell to me.

The next six songs or so were much better. In fact some of those tunes were the ones that prompted me to buy the album.

That's just what I think so far, my opinion could probably change.

WTF? "Stop sneezin'! Achoo!"

anc282 said:

I just got mine in the mail yesterday too Unfortunately I kinda have to agree with your review I felt that overall his new cd was lacking... I'll probably have to give it a few more listens before I form a more definite opinion but so far there are only 5 standout tracks to me:

Joy
Love Me 4 Me
Face Down
When I call
Bring It--at first listen I wasnt really feeling this one. But I just listened to it again and I like it more now. The music and and beat is pretty nice--it reminds me of Amerie's "One Thing"

I also wanna say that I would add the song "Blend" to my list of standout tracks, but the version he has on this cd isnt the one I like. I like the pop mix of "Blend" that he has on his Myspace page much better than the version he put on his cd

[Edited 3/24/09 19:10pm]
[Edited 3/24/09 19:21pm]

That wasn't my review, just first impressions.

Check out my blog if you wanna see how I review.

I don't mess around when I review albums!

Thanks just downloaded it from Amazon...and that's why I come to the org..you guys are always on it!

I like him..I saw him act STRANGE AS HELL on this interview on Bet Gospel one time..

ANyway I have his underground mp3 stuff he did b4 he went gospel..FUNKY STUFF especially Circu$

I am looking for the London LETTERS now that is good from beginning to end !

I don't understand why he's doing songs that are all techno and thugged out rap influenced.

Was it a result of the record label gettin' all up in his ear and forcing him to do it, or was he consciously doing it by himself?

Anyways I really like the ballads on this album.

"Unspoken"
"Blend"
"Cool With U"

In my opinion, the message in each & every one of those songs is extremely valid.

If he had've done the whole album, or most of it in that particular vein, then I would've been 100% satisfied....right about now I'm kinda disappointed in this guy.

anc282 said:

Oh ok I pretty much agreed with your first impressions. Blend is a nice song, I really like the songs message--totally agree with it. I like the pop mix of the song better that the slower version on the cd. Overall, its not a bad cd. Its got some good songs, but this one just isnt grabbin me like some of his other stuff has. Like his classic song "Personal Jesus"

utopia7 said:

I think he has that up on iTunes for downloading...that's how I got mine, had to download it, I dont see it available anywhere else.

Here's some songs from his new cd "Unspoken"

All right, here's my actual review of the album. A bit more indepth this time around. It's on my blog as well.

It was through a post that was made several years ago on either the fansite Prince.Org, or The Roots' official website okayplayer.com, that I was first made aware of the artist born Anthony C Williams II, better known as Tonéx.....and the demons he slay. Listen to what he say, he will never lead you astray.

As you can see, I quite enjoyed his debut album "Pronounced toe-nay" and especially the heavily Prince-influenced remix of the song, "One good reason," which is why I went and checked out some of his other work. In particular, the albums "o2," "London Letters" and also the song "Figure," another heavily Prince influenced piece of work from him. In March 2009, he released a new offering called "Unspoken," which was initially only available via his official online fanclub along with a bonus "mixtape" (err....mix CD) and a stick of incense, which I missed out on.....not complaining about that though. After pre-ordering a copy with disasterous results, and finally receiving it in my mail box with absolutely no confirmation email whatsoever, I decided to do a review of the album.....now usually I do things in a much more complete manner, beginning with the first song on the album & ending with the final track that closes the set, but this time I've decided just to speak about a few of the songs that stood out for me. I'll explain why later on. So, let me begin this album review.... with Track 3, no less:

Joy: Initially I didn't like this one very much, but it seems to have grown on me after a few listens. Or perhaps even because I took a very good look at the lyrics sheet. This guy's talking about how God gives him an unbelievable amount of joy, or "unspeakable joy" as he called it back in the day. He uses that very same phrase on this track as well...except this time he calls it "joy unspeakable." He's definitely saying something powerful on this track, which is why I can appreciate it now to some degree, whereas when I first heard the album, I pressed skip after a while. Yeah, the song's pretty good actually....although that skipping effect he does with his voice is a little irritating.

Blend: I first heard this song on his myspace page and I thought it was a really great tune, therefore I was prompted to pre-order the album. I didn't just feel this way because of the way the song sounded, with the whole contemporary RnB sound that he's bringing to the table, along with the occasionally Prince-inspired vocals, but also because of the message, which is all about individuality. He's telling folks not to try to be somebody else....or not to blend as he calls it in this particular song, because we are all unique in God's image. Definitely a message we can all relate to. Excellent!


Cool With U:At first I thought that this song was more along the same lines as the previous one, because I was just concentrating on the hook which says, "if it ain't cool with you...if it don't sound like you." But then when I followed the lyrics sheet, it occurred to me that what he was really talking about wanting to make The Lord happy.....I thought for a second that he was talking about a woman, but actually, no that's not the case. Wow...after discovering that, I'm even more impressed with this song then I was before. I thought the lyrics about Myspace & getting texted were a bit silly at first, but I think I know why he said that stuff now....first of all cuz texting is the latest craze at the moment and folks are always on MySpace instead of praying to God. Hmmm....I believe he's made comments like this before in the past in his songs.

Unspoken: This is one of those songs that I keep going back to over & over again. It definitely has that staying power, because even after hearing the song for the very first time, I had the tune playing in my head. Straight away. That's definitely a great sign. The message here is he doesn't really need to say anything to God, because He knows exactly what we're all thinking. Sometimes we might want to say something to Him, but we won't want everybody else to find out about it, so we might say a quiet prayer to God in our heads, which would therefore make it silent. Or unspoken if you will. There are times where he gets a little too crazy with his vocals. I was gonna say I had a slight problem with that, but then I listened to it closer and I came to the conclusion that it's quite an intense song, so who could blame him for warbling and what not?

Again: Another spiritual one from Tonéx. This one just serves as a form of encouragement for every single one of us, in this great big universe. There may be times in our lives where we may not be too sure of what to do with ourselves, or maybe we're just generally feeling down because of a bad experience. Tonéx is telling us all to just get down on our knees and say a prayer to God whenever we find ourselves in such situations, because God will always bless us. At all times. If He did it once, He'll do it again and again and again. And that's the message here in this song. Just keep the faith and God will watch over you and continually bless you. Brilliant.

Love Me 4 Me: Obviously this next song is not about God. Has nothin to do with Him. As the title suggests it's purely about wanting to find a woman who will love him for who he is....or has he already found somebody like that? Some of the lyrics suggest that maybe he already has. The song is more upbeat and in my eyes has a very Michael Jackson influenced type of lead vocal. Maybe that's why he's referenced "Rock with you" in the lyrics. Pretty decent song.

Verdict: Yes. Unfortunately it's already time for a final thought. Why? Because my inital review was incredibly negative and as a result I decided to go with this kind of review instead. My review was mostly negative, because the other "songs" on this record were absolute torture for me to listen to. It seemed as though he was trying to go for a much more mainstream sound, thus creating a whole bunch of incredibly annoying noises, as opposed to very well thought out and heartfelt dedications to The Most High. If he would've done the whole album in the style of "Blend," or if he just chose better backdrops for his otherwise valid, personal and overall divine messages to Jesus Christ, then I would've been much happier. At this stage, I am severely disappointed in his work. Maybe one day the rest of the record will grow on me and I'll do a much more complete, positive review, but for now....nope. Not happenin'. I really tried to like this record, but Tonéx....honestly, you're making my precious ears bleed with all of that friggen noise!!! Not cool at all.
[Edited 3/29/09 6:15am]