by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
The world of soul music is in peril these days.
Blame MTV for the pretty boy singers who dominate the pop charts, singing about nothing more than how good they look and how every girl wants them.
Gone are the days of the young Al Green and Marvin Gaye, where the songs are about the sincerity of love as well as the sting of heartbreak. Gone are the days of actual piano, guitars, drums and bass recordings, which have since been replaced with soulless digital compositions.
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Even D'Angelo, who was seen as the voice of the new generation of R&B, has been missing in action for six years. It is for these reasons that when a seven-track CD from an unknown singer appears on my desk, I listen very carefully.
Twenty-six-year-old Tony Hussle (real name Tony Pearyer) grew up playing piano in his mother's church. Sexy, Freaky, Electric opens with an introduction from his mother, explaining that at a young age Tony was already a whiz at the piano.
The album then rolls into the song "Come Again," one of the album's two singles, which takes a page from Prince's songbook as Hussle proclaims, "Roll back over baby, I ain't through." This song, along with the second single on the album, "She's A Virgin, Too," are the weakest tracks Hussle offers, sounding very much like the standard fare most of today's soul singers produce. It's the four tracks that compose the middle of the album in which Hussle truly hits his stride.
The middle four songs possess an original sound, in which violin strings compete with the horn and keyboard sections that wrap around Hussle's lyrics. His lyrics mostly focus on a girl he loves enough to respect her decision to wait to have sex, but after three months he's hoping she's changed her mind. What makes these tracks so good is the guitar solos he peppers his music with. Hussle cites one of his major influences as Jimi Hendrix, and nowhere is this more apparent than in his guitar solos. The structure of his music is so tight, the guitar solos act as almost an extension of his voice, showing the anxiety he's going through in his love life.
This is, though, only a seven-track CD. Take away the introduction by his mother and the two poorly chosen singles and you're left with four outstanding songs. The promise that Hussle has as a defining voice in soul music is almost scary it's so good. On his MySpace artist page he claims he's going to be the one to change the face of modern music. While it's nothing new for artists to proclaim themselves as the best in what they do, Hussle has the talent to make it happen. I eagerly await his full-album debut.
