Anthony Hamilton
Soulife

(Atlantic/Rhino)

First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2005, Volume 12, #7

Written by John Metzger

Anthony Hamilton’s success hasn’t come easily. His debut was lost amidst his record label’s financial struggles; his sophomore effort XTC floundered after a lack of support from the industry; and after shifting to Soulife (an indie-like subsidiary of Atlantic), his third outing was shelved when the small company went bankrupt. Although his fourth album Comin’ from Where I’m From eventually went platinum and earned the songwriter and vocalist several Grammy nominations, its ascendancy wasn’t immediate. Coming in the wake of Hamilton’s previous misfortunes, many wondered if he ever would catch the break he deserved.

Fortunately, once the spotlight finds someone, it’s reluctant to move elsewhere — at least for a little while — and salvaged from the ashes is Soulife, a collection that compiles the previously unreleased material recorded by Hamilton between 1999 and 2001. Tweaked with ProTools and awash in programmed drum beats, the backing music that surrounds the ballad-heavy affair suffers from the same set of symptoms that plagued Comin’ from Where I’m From, and the modernized textures severely diminish the organic essence of Hamilton’s songs to the point where they sometimes sound indistinct and manufactured. Although there are moments when the synthetic haze of the smooth and polished production is broken — the horns that grace Ball and Chain, the touches of acoustic guitar that seep through the dense pulse of I Used to Love Someone, and the swirling organ that envelops Day Dreamin’, for example — it isn’t always enough to allow the tunes to transcend their drab accompaniments.

What gives Soulife its momentum, then, is Hamilton’s easy-going vocal prowess, which frequently succeeds in brushing away the artificiality in order to strike a more natural pose. With a voice that glides somewhere between Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, he brings a sense of classic soul to much of his material, and there are countless hints scattered throughout the album that perhaps he one day will rival his idols’ greatest works. For now, however, Hamilton is merely an elegant singer who is struggling to find a way to remain relevant while also forcing the R&B world to shed its well-entrenched, formulaic approach to crafting albums.

Soulife is available from Barnes & Noble.
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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2005 The Music Box