Music Fan First: New Music from Eric Roberson
by Mark Anthony Neal
As R&B performers go, Eric Roberson is widely respected. But that respect has never translated into widespread appeal; Roberson is unlikely to be heard on your local urban radio station, despite a body of work that includes seven releases beginning with The Esoteric Movement in 2001. Roberson has very consciously crafted a career as an independent artist, releasing much of his music on his own Blue Erro Soul imprint. He gained some semblance of freedom, making his professional living the old-fashioned way; Roberson’s songs have been recorded by Dwele, Vivian Green, Will Downing, Case, Muisiq and Charlie Wilson.
But Roberson has also eschewed the trappings of the neo-Soul brand—a form of corporate contrived minstrelsy unto itself. Minus the locs, new Soul spirituality and head-wraps (“20 pounds of laundry wrapped around your head” as the late Sekou Sundiata once described it), Roberson has instead settled for simply being a solid-songwriter and R&B singer. There are few in the industry seemingly satisfied with just making good music—the cases of Joe and Will Downing notwithstanding—and it’s no surprise that those few are the artists who are still standing as the industry goes through a series of transitions. As an independent artist, Roberson long embraced a model (DIY) that is just now taking hold within the industry and with the release of his latest, Music Fan First, Roberson is primed to generate the kind of following that his music has long deserved.
Like most of his releases, Roberson’s Music Man First is filled with energy and vitality; Roberson’s functions well as a bouncy drive-time alternative to the banter, and at times tomfoolery, of urban radio, but there is much more to his music. In a recent interview in The Voice (UK), Roberson told critic Davina Morris that the title of the new recording “speaks to the way I create music; the way I'm always searching for some new or old music to lift my spirits.” Critic Jalylah Burrell has said of Roberson, “He manages plaintiveness without succumbing to the begging of his less-gifted contemporaries. He avoids explicit sexual content without sounding prudish. He sings of love in a remarkably realistic manner, bringing himself to the table with each and every song – the definition of a soul singer.”
Though not beyond recording friendlies for the club-hoppers, like “Evening,” Roberson’s ode to flirty, sexy love from …Left (2007), his strength has always been mid-tempo steppers. As such Music Fan First finds Roberson in familiar territory on tracks like “The Hunger” (featuring W. Ellington Felton) and “Borrow You.” Many of Roberson’s compositions feature rhythmic oddities—dramatic, yet subtle shifts in pacing; His ballads don’t go down easy and perhaps that’s the point. Roberson plays its straight (mostly) on tracks like “Weekend Getaway,” “A Tale of Two,” which samples liberally from Minnie Riperton’s “Inside My Love,” and “Dealing” where he is joined by Lalah Hathaway. But it’s the urgent and insistent “She” that stands as Music Fan First’s most accomplished balled.
The clear highlights on Music Fan First are “The Power that Kisses Hold” and “Howard Girls.” Epitomizing Roberson’s quirky composition style, “The Power that Kisses Hold” shifts into high gear, resembling a Philly Soul revival (in the religious sense of the word). On “Howard Girls,” Roberson is joined by vocalists Brandon Hines, Aaron Abernathy, and Geno Young, honoring the women of Washington D.C.’s Howard University. As sweet as it is nostalgic, on “Howard Girls” Roberson allows Abernathy to bring the song home and he, takes it to church, if you will. Roberson closes Music Fan First with “Celebration” which pays homage to close friends he has lost as well as a brief spoken tribute to Michael Jackson.
With many tiring with what seems to be an endless loop off mediocre R&B, Roberson has a great opportunity to garner a new audience. Being clear, Eric Roberson breaks no new ground here. Like his peers Will Downing and Joe, Roberson has rarely stood out amongst peers who had the right look or the right producer or recorded for the right label group. Roberson has only had to rely on the integrity off his music and the belief that good music will find an audience. Here’s to hoping that such things still matter for something.
by Mark Anthony Neal
As R&B performers go, Eric Roberson is widely respected. But that respect has never translated into widespread appeal; Roberson is unlikely to be heard on your local urban radio station, despite a body of work that includes seven releases beginning with The Esoteric Movement in 2001. Roberson has very consciously crafted a career as an independent artist, releasing much of his music on his own Blue Erro Soul imprint. He gained some semblance of freedom, making his professional living the old-fashioned way; Roberson’s songs have been recorded by Dwele, Vivian Green, Will Downing, Case, Muisiq and Charlie Wilson.
But Roberson has also eschewed the trappings of the neo-Soul brand—a form of corporate contrived minstrelsy unto itself. Minus the locs, new Soul spirituality and head-wraps (“20 pounds of laundry wrapped around your head” as the late Sekou Sundiata once described it), Roberson has instead settled for simply being a solid-songwriter and R&B singer. There are few in the industry seemingly satisfied with just making good music—the cases of Joe and Will Downing notwithstanding—and it’s no surprise that those few are the artists who are still standing as the industry goes through a series of transitions. As an independent artist, Roberson long embraced a model (DIY) that is just now taking hold within the industry and with the release of his latest, Music Fan First, Roberson is primed to generate the kind of following that his music has long deserved.
Like most of his releases, Roberson’s Music Man First is filled with energy and vitality; Roberson’s functions well as a bouncy drive-time alternative to the banter, and at times tomfoolery, of urban radio, but there is much more to his music. In a recent interview in The Voice (UK), Roberson told critic Davina Morris that the title of the new recording “speaks to the way I create music; the way I'm always searching for some new or old music to lift my spirits.” Critic Jalylah Burrell has said of Roberson, “He manages plaintiveness without succumbing to the begging of his less-gifted contemporaries. He avoids explicit sexual content without sounding prudish. He sings of love in a remarkably realistic manner, bringing himself to the table with each and every song – the definition of a soul singer.”
Though not beyond recording friendlies for the club-hoppers, like “Evening,” Roberson’s ode to flirty, sexy love from …Left (2007), his strength has always been mid-tempo steppers. As such Music Fan First finds Roberson in familiar territory on tracks like “The Hunger” (featuring W. Ellington Felton) and “Borrow You.” Many of Roberson’s compositions feature rhythmic oddities—dramatic, yet subtle shifts in pacing; His ballads don’t go down easy and perhaps that’s the point. Roberson plays its straight (mostly) on tracks like “Weekend Getaway,” “A Tale of Two,” which samples liberally from Minnie Riperton’s “Inside My Love,” and “Dealing” where he is joined by Lalah Hathaway. But it’s the urgent and insistent “She” that stands as Music Fan First’s most accomplished balled.
The clear highlights on Music Fan First are “The Power that Kisses Hold” and “Howard Girls.” Epitomizing Roberson’s quirky composition style, “The Power that Kisses Hold” shifts into high gear, resembling a Philly Soul revival (in the religious sense of the word). On “Howard Girls,” Roberson is joined by vocalists Brandon Hines, Aaron Abernathy, and Geno Young, honoring the women of Washington D.C.’s Howard University. As sweet as it is nostalgic, on “Howard Girls” Roberson allows Abernathy to bring the song home and he, takes it to church, if you will. Roberson closes Music Fan First with “Celebration” which pays homage to close friends he has lost as well as a brief spoken tribute to Michael Jackson.
With many tiring with what seems to be an endless loop off mediocre R&B, Roberson has a great opportunity to garner a new audience. Being clear, Eric Roberson breaks no new ground here. Like his peers Will Downing and Joe, Roberson has rarely stood out amongst peers who had the right look or the right producer or recorded for the right label group. Roberson has only had to rely on the integrity off his music and the belief that good music will find an audience. Here’s to hoping that such things still matter for something.
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