I think of the track as vintage Motown with a Stax guitar line factored inвЂ¦itвЂ™s like a melting pot of the two soundsвЂ¦вЂќ I looked at a lot of their album covers so I could immerse myself in the characters. The vocal has a David Ruffin вЂfeelвЂ™: I pictured how it was when Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams and the guys in the Temps were first introduced to the world. Talking about the songs, he notes, вЂњThe first track shows my deep connection to The Temptations.

From the foot-tapping opening track, вЂњSure Hope You Mean ItвЂќ to the head-shaking reflective closer вЂњSometimes,вЂќ Raphael delivers a present day potent ode to a bygone era. The result is that The Way I See It has the kind of smooth musical flow associated with great records made by pioneering producers at famous R&B companies like Motown, Invictus and Brunswick. In all, it took about four months to put it all together.вЂќ

I was able to live with it, day after day and I think that had a lot to do with how the album turned out. Since I have my own studio, I was able to perfect it, take my time to make it right. I was surfing and ran into people from all kinds of placesвЂ¦and I noticed everybody was listening to this classic soul music and when I came back home and the music for this album flowed organically, naturally. вЂњI was out of the country, cooling out, in Costa Rica and The Bahamas. The inspiration for singer/songwriter/musician/producer and arranger RaphaelвЂ™s follow up to 2004вЂ™s critically-acclaimed вЂњRay RayвЂќ set came from an unlikely destination. While other contemporary artists may attempt to emulate the sound and flavor of вЂ70s soul music, Raphael Saadiq brings real emotion, real feeling and production values that are simply (to borrow a popular phrase from back then), right on. Musically cohesive in the same way that soul music albums were recorded back in the day, RaphaelвЂ™s third solo album and first for Sony BMG is not merely a throwback: it is as close to the kind of record made in Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, Miami or New York by any number of super R&B hit makers to anything recorded since. Listening to The Way I See It, itвЂ™s immediately obvious that it could have been recorded thirty years ago. This album is the culmination of a life time of experiences informed by the music i grew up on.' studio where he recorded his latest illustrious work. вЂњEvery record IвЂ™ve ever made has had those influencesвЂ¦The Temptations, Al Green, The Four Tops and so on,вЂќ Raphael explains from the L.A. From his early days as a member of the groundbreaking вЂ80s group Tony! Toni! TonГ©! through his work as an award-winning producer of such artists as Joss Stone, The Roots, Snoop Dogg, John Legend among many others and his own solo albums, the multi-talented Raphael Saadiq has kept the faith. He is a standard bearer for what folks call вЂold schoolвЂ™ music, a contemporary artist continuing a time-honored tradition that goes back to the вЂ60s and вЂ70s.

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