Way I See It, The

Very Motown-like retro soul from this producer and Oakland native. Former Tony! Toni! Toné! member releases his 3rd solo album, this time opting for a pretty faithful old school R&B/ soul sound. Features some big hitters like Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z. It's a pretty polarizing album from my experience: some see it as a cheap trick and others like it's take on Motown. I like it.

-Adrian
My picks: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12

1. slow swing love song. nice chorus. early fade out.
2. mid tempo groove. great riff. fade out.
3. mid tempo. very classic sound. chorus repeats a lot, with a breakdown and a build up before the end.
4. med-fast. horns. hand claps. has sort of a darker/ bigger picture feel to it than some of the other songs.
5. med-slow. standard love song with nice strings and f vox. a nice pre-chorus build up.
6. mid tempo. repetative verses but pretty good chorus.
7. slow ballad. the latin song with spanish (at the beginning) lyrics and nylon string guitar. goes into more standard r&b groove later.
8. mid tempo. definitely a more modern sound than some of the songs. big backup vocals over motown-ish riffs.
9. slow ballad. sort of an early 70s Marvin Gaye/ Smokey Robinson thing going.
10. mid tempo. late 60s-style bluesey and jaunty.
11. med-slow. breathy 'sex you up' sort-of ballad.
12. mid tempo. uses loops (modern sounding) but otherwise has a big-picture, troubled-world ballad things going (like early 70s Marvin Gaye)
13. version of 9 with Jay-Z rapping over it. I don't think it works particularly well.