Not just for her, though she says its the best song she has ever done or heard. There hasnt been a song in RB this fierce, and LIVE sounding since, quite frankly, as she says the 70's. ITS ALL LIVE to, dont start thinking this track is sampled from some old riff, nah, save that for the U KNOW WHO's. This track is the first song on her "In love and War" cd which hits November 3rd, on Def Jam, they are just putting it out, she is doing alot of the funding herself, since Def Jam has no clue anymore and arent going to push it, so expect this to go under the radar like everyone else that is good, keep pushing the shitty records, a new Rihanna is right behind this, that will get the push.

Check Out AMERIE discussing the recording of the track

how she is lumped in with the other ladies of rb blows my mind, none of them can even talk about their tracks, let alone have written and arranged them like AMERIE has.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...829iGmE2Zk

While I am listen to her music and even have one of her cd's,(the one with "One Thing), she is missing that something, that would make me listen to her on a regular basis. Maybe, I will pick this cd up eventualy, but I am in no rush to get it.

I'll listen to the album when it comes out, but listening to her speaking about the process of how the record was made just clearly shows that she doesn't have that much idea what was going on.

(tadadadada-tadadada!)

novabrkr said:

I guess that's why I don't feel her as much as I should, she seems to lack the know how and confidence that other artists have.

Well, she's clearly involved - and might be actually involved more in the process than the typical R&B -starlet. But when they'll start speaking about it more enthusiastically it often exposes their limits of understanding the actual process of how music is made in the studio.

Here Amerie is like,
"I wanted something with guitar!"

Whereas a typical muso would be like,
"I wanted something with the sound of a vintage Fender Twin, caked in together with some natural room reverberations and also suing the Maestro phaser I bought from a specialist music store on my trip to Amsterdam. It was my idea that the guitar parts should be placed high in the mix, leaving some room for the bass parts played on the Moog and doubled with a bass guitar. Yet this way we could also fill up the middle space with the recurring snare sound, which demanded more room and gave in the process a more modern twist to it. This also allowed the multiband compression during the mixing / mastering stage to retain an airier, yet very dynamic feel."

Amerie,
"That's it!"

novabrkr said:

First you wont get that kind of "detailed" explanation unless its a person that actually plays the guitar 24/7. There are people that can play that dont that many details of instruments or even how to put things together. Amerie clearly is in control of her projects at this point, that aint happening with other RB females, and you can add the Queen Beyonce to that list, she has no clue on her music and putting it together. Most of them would just get a sample and use it, i mean we see it on threads on this site all the time, where we are praising someones choice of SAMPLE. WTF? we are saying an artist is smarter for knowing a sample to pick? Give me a break on that . But clearly Amerie is more educated in the process and at least can be in a situation of dictating what will go down on her record as opposed to bringing in 9 other dudes to write and pick samples and then be called genius for it. So Amerie is easily more involved mainly because she hold a conversation about a process, i mean shes not going to teach music classes, but in todays forum of RB and throw in the pop/rock peeps too, she is well above them, there are fuckers that play that havent a clue.

Don't worry, I genuinely like her. I've been playing the 2nd album a lot, as it's one of those very few modern R&B -records that I can listen to.

Although, I would say that picking up just the right sample can be just as tough as coming up with the right chord progression or a solo. You should check out artists such as Madlib or Tricky for that particular skill.

novabrkr said:

Well sampling to me can never be given the credit that actually playing the riff can, they should never be in the same room together. But i here people praise producers who dont play they just slap a beat on and call it their "production" i could never get around that, i mean ok if you wanna call it a skill, but to me that is like making a movie and taking parts from all other movies to put it together and calling it MY production.

Playing a couple of chords on the keyboards or on piano really isn't terribly demanding. The same can be said for most drum tracks that have been used in pop music. Finding the right sample and trying to make it fit with the rest of the music will often require a whole lot more work and having to adjust to the tonalities that the sample itself will set for the rest of the composition.

You do realize that most of the drum tracks on the type of music that you yourself listen to are samples, right? They take bits and pieces from here and there and add stuff on top of that. That probably applies also to Amerie's records.

novabrkr said:

Well the instrumentation she is using is being played live, she isnt lifting some "ohio players" track and making it seem like they were there in the studio. I mean we can easily say that no singer is actually doing a song in the studio if we break it down. I mean today you go in record a part or line or hook then go home and write or whatever then rest your voice, then come back in a week and record the chorus and then the whole thing gets pieced together, thats how they all do it in that respect, so in that respect everyone loses that feel of having a band jamming and putting it right on tape, almost no one does that, everyone takes the best stuff or what they think is best and pieces it together. Most of artists that i listen to like a Ryan Adams,Norah Jones and older artists like a rick springfield or styx or whomever arent exactly artists that dont play and pull samples, but the recording process has changed to where you dont do it all one shot, hell, even the Beatles didnt do it that way. But to me there is a huge difference than picking a riff to TAKE then taking the best of what you have done.

Its good and better then most mainstream shit sure.

But, do you listen to all new RnB? not just the ones you hear on TV? because Amerie wouldn't come close to some of these other RnB cats im thinking of.

Check out Rahsaan Pattersan if you wanna modern day soul RnB master....or if you want female, you could try Ledisi.

Here's a sample of both doing that 70s sound.

Ledisi - Knockin'

http://www.youtube.com/wa...KKz_GReZ0I

Rahsaan Patterson - Oh Lord (Take Me Back) live

http://www.youtube.com/wa...uorIDm3noc

Unfortunetly i can't find the studio version of the Rahsaan track but, its cool live too!
[Edited 10/10/09 9:26am]

WetDream said:

Actually Amerie is far from mainstream, she doesnt get played and she doesnt use the "hitmakers" that everyone else uses, she hasnt been in the mainstream since her debut pretty much. I have all Rashaan's stuff, have heard ledisi's stuff, liked Rashaan way before he was even mentioned on this forum, dig Angie stone though her new song is terrible, Meshells new cd is top notch again. Van Hunt is cool, but his constant bitching and laziness has turned me off of his music very quickly.

WetDream said:

"Knockin'" is the SHIT!!!!!