{"id":41557,"date":"2009-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/keep-on-movin\/"},"modified":"2009-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-14T00:00:00","slug":"keep-on-movin","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/keep-on-movin\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep On Movin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keep On Movin\u2019 <\/i>by Soul II Soul is where the distinct drum machine sound of the \u201880s meets the laidback R&B flavor of the \u201890s. It was the precursor to the short-lived new jack swing period and had elements of jazz to make it more high-brow (and harmless) than your typical hip-hop fare. The title track, sung by Caron Wheeler, has an elegant, sweeping style that is set to a danceable beat. As the album\u2019s producers, Nellee Hooper and Jazzie B announced their arrival in a big way, even gaining the attention of the likes of Bjork and Madonna. Later, Nellee Hooper went on to further critical acclaim as a member of the trip-hop outfit Massive Attack.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album (which is also titled Club Classics, Vol. 1 <\/i>in some territories) is mostly known for the two #1 club hits, \u201cKeep On Movin\u201d and \u201cBack To Life.\u201d The other tunes to be found on the record didn\u2019t really catch fire like those two did, so they come off sounding like window dressing designed just to pass the time and to ensure an album\u2019s worth of material. There\u2019s an instrumental here (\u201cAfrican Dance\u201d), a dub version there (\u201cHappiness\u201d) and a B-side thrown in for whatever reason (\u201cJazzie\u2019s Groove\u201d). For this album to have done so well critically and commercially is something of a surprise, considering how much filler it contains.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first few tracks are the best of the lot on Keep On Movin<\/i>\u2019. Despite the constant refrain of the line \u201cWouldn\u2019t that be fair\u201d sung by Rose Winthrop, \u201cFairplay\u201d has an enticing, laidback groove that\u2019s along the same lines as Janet Jackson\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s The Way Love Goes.\u201d Even better still is \u201cHoldin\u2019 On,\u201d where we first hear Jazzie B\u2019s distinctive vocals, not to mention the sorely missed sounds of strings \u2013 the element that made all those \u201870s disco records so magical. There are even some Zulu vocals by an unknown artist known only as Shikisha. Go on with your bad self, Shikisha!<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There is more bad news that comes when Jazzie B attempts to rap on the slowed-down and murky \u201cFeeling Free.\u201d Had the tempo been a bit faster, the rap would have fit, but the way it stands now it just doesn\u2019t work. Also disappointing is the similarly titled \u201cFeel Free,\u201d which has a bizarre warbling vocal performance by Do\u2019Reen. Needless to say, her singing is something of an acquired taste.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thankfully, the songs are short in their duration because I couldn\u2019t wait for it all to end.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this genre of music is not one of my favorites, hence the low grade. There just aren\u2019t enough memorable tracks on par with the two hits making it worth plunking down your hard-earned money for. The drum machines now make this material sound dated and Soul II Soul has since ceased to exist. Truth be told, this album sounds<\/i> like it was hastily assembled, making it more of an artifact than the classic it aspires to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8411],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-41557","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soul-ii-soul","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41557"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41557"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}