Bilal Reveals A Love Surreal Track List and Cover Art

Originally posted on January 15, 2013

Bilal's A Love Surreal album is now available for pre-order. The disc is due out February 26, and, according to the official track list, features one guest, Robert Glasper. Initially, the set had been due to arrive in stores on Feb. 12, just in time for Valentine's Day, but the project has since been delayed.

The cover art for A Love Surreal features a photograph of Bilal, who is shown standing against what looks like a painted background. Across from him is what appears to be a large pink flower, but upon closer inspection, fans will see several images of a nude woman.

Her legs appear to be the stem of the flower, while repeating images of her curled up body appear to be the flower petals.

Bilal has said that the music and cover art for A Love Surreal were inspired by the surrealist paintings of Salvador Dali.

Here's the A Love Surreal track listing:

1. "Intro"
2. "West Side Girl"
3. "Back To Love"
4. "Winning Hand"
5. "Climbing"
6. "Longing and Waiting"
7. "Right At the Core"
8. "Slipping Away"
9. "Lost For Now"
10. "Astray"
11. Never Be the Same
12. "Butterfly" feat. Robert Glasper
13. "The Flow"
14. "Outro"

[Edited 4/9/13 13:43pm]

"Back to Love" official vid.

Bilal shares creative process of A Love Surreal album.

I have a feeling this will be much better than Airtight Revenge.

Did anybody see him at Highline ballroom for his "album release show" ?

Some excerps from a verry good article about him :

“I have a very punk rock approach to making music,” Bilal says. “This simply means there is no one way of doing things. With my music, I’m always searching for the artful possibilities.”

Robert Glasper explains. “Well, that’s how Bilal makes music.” As a part of Bilal’s cast of musical characters, Glasper met the singer on their first day of college in 1999 at the New School in New York City. He’s played on each of the singer’s albums, including the unreleased 2006 gem Love for Sale. On A Love Surreal, the two did a song called “Butterfly,” a duet featuring just voice and piano. “With Bilal, his ideas just get wilder. He doesn’t want to be labeled as ‘the soul guy.’ Even when we were in school, he was notorious for messing with people musically [...] The demos for 1st Born Second were all alternative rock, but the label wasn’t feeling that direction,” Glasper recalls. In 2006, when presented with his Love for Sale, the label shelved the record and dropped him. “That record sounded like what Andre 3000 did a few years later on The Love Below,” says Glasper. “Bilal was just ahead of his time.”

Taking the same attitude to the stage, Bilal soon got the reputation of being an erratic performer. “People might’ve thought I was on drugs or intoxicated, but that wasn’t it,” Bilal shrugs. “I just didn’t give a fuck because I was looking for the art. I wanted to be out, like when John Coltrane started playing with his wife, Alice. I just wanted to rip open music with my voice.”

Seven years after the Interscope fiasco, Bilal, now a married father with three sons, is still a relevant force, much more in control of his life and music. He seems happier these days. And after reveling in the excellence that is A Love Surreal, it’s safe to say, the brother’s lost none of his ambition.

I'm really looking forward to this.

NPR's full-length album preview Ultra cool!

Identity said:

NPR's full-length album preview Ultra cool!

Oh snap!!!! I think this album is the ONE!

Immediately, "Climbing" and "Butterfly" are my favorite tracks.

[Edited 2/18/13 11:28am]

It's so good! I am just streaming the whole thing without song titles. The prod is also up to my expectations.

12. "Butterfly" feat. Robert Glasper

Whew! Now that's a song.

Cinny said:

12. "Butterfly" feat. Robert Glasper

Whew! Now that's a song.

Yes sir!

It would be immaculate if Bilal and Robert Glasper did a whole album together. Goodness

[Edited 2/18/13 12:38pm]

missfee said:

Cinny said:

Whew! Now that's a song.

Yes sir!

It would be immaculate if Bilal and Robert Glasper did a whole album together. Goodness

Isn't Robert Glasper the dude who said he was producing the new Chaka Khan? I can hear why some people were so amped on that collaboration!

"Love Surreal" sounds like it's gonna be BANGIN'! Lookin' 4-ward 2 it!

Cinny said:

missfee said:

Yes sir!

It would be immaculate if Bilal and Robert Glasper did a whole album together. Goodness

Isn't Robert Glasper the dude who said he was producing the new Chaka Khan? I can hear why some people were so amped on that collaboration!

Is he? I haven't heard that, but it could be true.

But yes, Robert Glasper is the truth! I saw him with the Robert Glasper Experiment back in October and they were excellent!! I'm constantly stalking his website (which I'm signed up on anyway) for more tour dates because seeing him live is a MUST SEE for me again.

[Edited 2/18/13 17:13pm]

missfee said:

Cinny said:

Isn't Robert Glasper the dude who said he was producing the new Chaka Khan? I can hear why some people were so amped on that collaboration!

Is he? I haven't heard that, but it could be true.

But yes, Robert Glasper is the truth! I saw him with the Robert Glasper Experiment back in October and they were excellent!! I'm constantly stalking his website (which I'm signed up on anyway) for more tour dates because seeing him live is a MUST SEE for me again.

Totally ---> http://prince.org/msg/8/3...sg_8822224

Cinny said:

missfee said:

Is he? I haven't heard that, but it could be true.

But yes, Robert Glasper is the truth! I saw him with the Robert Glasper Experiment back in October and they were excellent!! I'm constantly stalking his website (which I'm signed up on anyway) for more tour dates because seeing him live is a MUST SEE for me again.

Totally ---> http://prince.org/msg/8/3...sg_8822224

Okay cool! I completely missed this thread, thanks!

This is awesome, it sounds like a perfect folow up to Love For Sale !

Bilal: Soul Survivor

Feb 2013

Link

Once artists cement themselves as being supremely talented, they develop strong relationships of trust with the listeners, who tune in with anxious, open ears every time that an artist releases new material.

It’s called credibility, and Philadelphia soul brother Bilal has certainly established himself as one of musics most credible members. The styles may switch up, but the quality never does; the bar remains high, and through his first two albums – 1st Born Second and Airtights’ Revenge – and standout guest appearances collaborating with Common, The Roots, Robert Glasper, JAY Z, Erykah Badu and others, Bilal has garnered a heavy reputation over the past decade as one of music’s top vocalists. As he preps his third LP, A Love Surreal, due out February 26th, no less should be expected, especially after hearing the first two singles.

Life+Times caught up with Bilal to discuss A Love Surreal, who he’d like to work with, Philadelphia music and more.

Talk about the progress and growth you’ve made as an artist from your first album until now with A Love Surreal.

Bilal: The progression has been that I’ve slowly started to produce more on each record. 1st Born Second, I think I produced three records on there; Airtights’ Revenge, I produced just about every record and if I didn’t produce it, I was working with the producer to get the sound. So on this new record I’ve produced as much as I’ve done before, so I would say this record has more of a complete sound from my own head.

Expand on the new album and what it sounds like, where the title came from, etc.

Bilal: The new album I like to say is a mixture of a lot of different sounds. I like to call it acid-jazz, funk, kind of blues album, with the influence of hip-hop definitely. I was inspired by Salvador Dali, that’s where surrealism came from. I was thinking of an album that never came out. I had an album on Interscope that was called Love For Sale, and it got shelved, so I just named this one Love Surreal, because I felt like I was right back at square one. For the longest I was supposed to sign with E1 and actually put Love For Sale out, but you know, things happen. It’s surreal that I’m right back at the same spot about to put our a record with them. Also, surreal – the word surrealism – my inspiration for this record, I got a lot of concepts from Salvador Dali and the way he made his art pieces, it almost looks three-dimensional, and I wanted to do that with the sound of this album. So this record is almost like a sonic art piece.

Where does the first single, “Back To Love,” fit in the totality of the album?

Bilal: “Back To Love,” it really speaks about emotion and feeling of this album. My last album was an album that I had really written for the male listener. I was really speaking about a lot of issues and questions that I had in my own mind about life, government, religion, economy, my children, things of that nature. But on this record, I’m getting back to speaking about love and I really feel like I’m speaking to women on this record. It’s a woman’s feeling and it’s loving, you know. It’s not as dark as Airtights’ Revenge, so “Back To Love” really opens up the door to that type of emotion.

Leading up to the album, you released a mixtape [The Retrospection] with a couple of new records, including Stevie Wonder, “Too High” cover. Talk about that song and why you decided to cover that record?

Bilal: It was a remake of a remake, that’s the way I look at it. I got the music from Yesterday’s New Quintet which is a side project that Madlib does – Madlib is an awesome producer out of California. I was listening to his remake and decided to just sing this song over the top of it, because it was originally an instrumental. So I just sang the original song over top of it in my own new way.

That song in particular is [one of my favorites]. I liked Stevie’s playing and form on that. It reminded me a lot of the jazz formation, style and approach to soul music, and that’s what’s really my blueprint on this album, A Love Surreal – to use a jazz approach. On a lot of my albums, like Airtights’ Revenge, it was very heavily electronic and rock influenced, but this album adds all of those influences with a jazz influence mixed in there, too. I was always looking for a way to fit it in, and working on that song really opened up my eyes on how I could possibly do it.

Robert Glasper has mentioned that you all are good friends and went to school together. What’s your relationship with him and how does it feel to see him get Grammy recognition?

Bilal: It’s awesome, you know, Rob’s played on every one of my albums from 1st Born Second on, he’s even playing on this record, so I’ve known Rob since college basically. We were running buddies, went to all the jam sessions, all the jazz sessions, so to see him out there, I always told him that this was gonna happen for him. I used to call him the Black Yanni back in college [laughs]. For all of this stuff to come through, I’m really happy for him. As well as me being on all of his records, he was on all of mine, so it just feels like we’re celebrating together.

Reflect on the Soulquarian movement you were a part of and what that did for music.

Bilal: I look at that like a renaissance almost with a lot of high level musicians getting together and working with each other. Something like that hasn’t really happened since Tribe Called Quest when they had the movement with Busta Rhymes, De La Soul and it was really a push on jazz infused with hip-hop. So the [Soulquarians] movement felt like a renaissance for me. I was the youngest cat in the group, so for me to just be involved in it was dope. I really think it inspired a lot of musicians to create on another level with the music and it also made a lot of people look back to the ancestors or the forefathers of the movements.

Anyone you haven’t worked with that you would like to?

Bilal: Well there’s a bunch of people that I’ve worked with that the stuff never came out [laughs]. I’d like that shit to come out. I always wanted to do some things with Flying Lotus, he’s a producer out of Los Angeles. I’ve love to do some things with him to see what comes from that. We’re good friends and when I’m out in LA I’m hanging at his crib, we mess around with some music here and there, but I’d love to do a record with that cat, he’s awesome.

Philadelphia has an incredible music history, especially dating back to Gamble and Huff, and “Philadelphia Soul.” Talk about the Philly music scene nowadays with yourself, The Roots, Jill Scott and others that come from that area.

Bilal: Well, you know, Philadelphia is like a big city, but it’s a small town. So all the musicians are kind of a family. Everyone knows each other and everyone likes to play with each other. It’s how we hang out. So you always can find a dope jam session in Philadelphia, and you can still do that today, almost everyday of the week. I think that’s where a lot of the soul comes from, that community and that communal kind of thing with everybody jamming with each other. Everybody has that same understanding and appreciation of soul.

...

[Edited 2/25/13 5:49am]

^^^Great article...now can't wait for tomorrow!!

I'm digging this new joint.

Yeah I already ordered my copy : love that album !

Picked it up today at Best Buy (the last copy, that's good news.)

"Climbing" is the hottest joint on the album. I can't stop listening to that song.

I love "Astray" too.

Best Buy had 1 copy of this cd...................wth.

I miss the big record store chains like Tower. Best Buy and Target have steadily reduced shelf space for new CDs because of online competion from Amazon.com and iTunes.

This record is underwhelming. It's not nearly as clunky and abstruse as

Airtight but it's not bristling with energy and vitality (1st Born) or musically

adventurous (Love For Sale) either. Nothing stands out, not even Bilal's

gift to this planet: his voice. It seems like the toils and years of touring

and guest vocal-ing have sapped him of his strength. Bilal was never a

strong melodicist nor lyricist but some of the stuff he composed on this

record furrowed my brow. All is not lost: Van Hunt is writing a new album.

6/10.

It's funny cause I felt the complete opposite of what u just wrote, for me it combines everything that I liked in his past album, it's adventurous, jazzy, accessible yet pretty experimental. It is less energetic than 1st born second, this I agree with but it has a cohesive sound an, a real vibe that 1st born second didn't have. 1st Born Second sounded more like a collection of songs, a "here is what I can do" kind of statement. The production is also way more interesting on this one, some of the tracks on the first album were basically beats or a couple of loops blend togeteher (of course some other one were fantastic ...).

I would give it 4and half stars

Cotontige said:

It's funny cause I felt the complete opposite of what u just wrote, for me it combines everything that I liked in his past album, it's adventurous, jazzy, accessible yet pretty experimental. It is less energetic than 1st born second, this I agree with but it has a cohesive sound an, a real vibe that 1st born second didn't have. 1st Born Second sounded more like a collection of songs, a "here is what I can do" kind of statement. The production is also way more interesting on this one, some of the tracks on the first album were basically beats or a couple of loops blend togeteher (of course some other one were fantastic ...).

I would give it 4and half stars

I agree with you that A Love Surreal has a more cohesive sound than 1st Born.

This is because I always viewed Bilal's debut as a collection of singles and not

a proper full length album of some sort of artistic statement that coheres throughout.

With that being said:

A Love Surreal is a proper full length albums of an artistic statement that coheres

throughout. But I found it boring! I dunno: something about his voice juxtaposed

with the jangly-ness of an electric guitar is grating. Sometimes I think for R&B

cats who want to be explorative and inventive, this means utilizing instruments

not usually associated with their genre of choice and incorporating other song styles

and structures. So you get Bilal doing Radiohead rock on Airtight and toning it down

for this one. But I don't find this particularly explorative or inventive! What Were

You Hoping For? was explorative, in my opinion. There's nothing on A Love Surreal

that is captivating. The songwriting doesn't contain any verve; nothing pops!

But I appreciate Bilal's presence in the R&B scene today. I think Love For Sale is his

magnum opus and find it so strange that two of the best R&B albums of the past ten

years were both shelved, the other being Van Hunt's Popular!

However, my review must be taken with a grain of salt. I've only listened to the album

once. I didn't come to fully appreciate Popular until several spins later.