House of Music

For the museum in Vienna, see Haus der Musik.

House of Music
Studio album by Tony! Toni! Toné!
Released November 19, 1996
Recorded September 1995 – September 1996
Studio Various studios in California
Genre R&B, soul, funk
Length 69:08
Label Mercury
Producer DJ Quik, G-One, Tony! Toni! Toné! (also exec.)
Tony! Toni! Toné! chronology
Sons of Soul
(1993)		 House of Music
(1996)		 Hits
(1997)
Singles from House of Music
  1. "Let's Get Down"
    Released: October 28, 1996
  2. "Thinking of You"
    Released: March 11, 1997

House of Music is the fourth studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!. It was released on November 19, 1996, by Mercury Records. After the success of the band's 1993 album Sons of Soul and a hiatus marked by individual musical projects, the members of Tony! Toni! Toné! regrouped in 1995 and began recording House of Music, working at a number of studios in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento. Its production was generally handled by each band member—bassist and vocalist Raphael Saadiq, guitarist and vocalist D'wayne Wiggins, and percussionist/keyboardist Timothy Christian Riley; the only song to feature outside production was "Let's Get Down", which was produced by Saadiq with rapper/producer DJ Quik and G-One.

Saadiq, Wiggins, and Riley worked on songs for House of Music independently before recording them together as a group. In their direction for the album, Tony! Toni! Toné! sought to emphasize musicianship rather than production technique during the sessions. The record expanded on their previous work's traditional R&B influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music journalists have noted the album's incorporation of traditional and contemporary sensibilities, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics. Tony! Toni! Toné! named House of Music after a small business record store in the band's native city of Oakland, which Wiggins said they were reminded of after listening to the album.

House of Music charted for 31 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 32, and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The record received widespread acclaim from critics, many of whom praised Tony! Toni! Toné!'s musicianship and songwriting. An expected international tour to promote the album did not materialize amid growing tensions within the group stemming from creative differences. House of Music proved to be Tony! Toni! Toné!'s last album, as they disbanded shortly after the record's release to pursue separate music careers.

Recording and production

Raphael Saadiq (photographed in 2008) played several instruments on House of Music and produced eight of its 14 songs.

Tony! Toni! Toné! took a hiatus as a group after the commercial and critical success of their 1993 album Sons of Soul. According to vocalist and bassist Raphael Wiggins, each member had pursued individual music projects, and "the group was trying to figure out where everybody's time, space and head was at."[1] He, D'wayne Wiggins, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists during the band's hiatus, including D'Angelo, En Vogue, Karyn White, Tevin Campbell, and A Tribe Called Quest.[2] Raphael Wiggins adopted the surname "Saadiq" for his professional name in 1994—"man of his word" in Arabic—and released his solo single "Ask of You" in 1995.[3] Their work outside the band led to rumors of a break-up during the time between albums.[4] Tony! Toni! Toné! eventually regrouped and began recording House of Music in September 1995.[5]

Recording sessions took place at various studios in California, including Brillian Studios and Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco; Coda Studios and Grass Roots Studios in Oakland; Encore Studios, Image Recording, and Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles; and Pookie Labs and Woodshed Studios in Sacramento.[5] Tony! Toni! Toné! used vintage recording equipment and, for certain tracks, a 40-piece orchestra.[6] The band performed with guest musicians on some tracks, including rapper and producer DJ Quik, percussionist Sheila E., and the Tower of Power horn section.[4] Saadiq worked with DJ Quik on the song "Let's Get Down" and said the collaboration proved very "natural" because of the producer's affinity for funk music.[1] Tony! Toni! Toné! intended on recording the album with an emphasis on musicianship rather than production flair. Wiggins felt that the absence of their once prominent synthesizers made the resulting music sound more distinctive. "On a lot of the songs, you can just imagine a five-piece band performing", he later told USA Today.[4]

Another way House of Music's production differed from the group's previous albums was that each member arranged, composed, and produced songs on their own before putting the finished recordings together.[7] According to Saadiq, "what I did was write a lot of stuff and rehearse it for about a month, then recorded it live. Then [Wiggins and Riley] would add their parts separately."[8] He worked with his own recording crew for House of Music, featuring guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, drummer Tommy Branford, and keyboardists Kelvin Wooten and Cedric Draper.[9] Wiggins believed the band's hiatus benefited them while recording House of Music, feeling they would be less likely to produce an album derivative of Sons of Soul. According to him, House of Music proved to be more than "just a bunch of grooves that we put together and made sure that the tempo fit. Lyrically and musically, it talks about something, and you're able to feel the emotional buildup that we felt when we were making the songs ... It's funny though. Even though we did the music separately, when we got together, it all had the same kind of sound."[7]

The album's opening track, "Thinking of You", was one song that the group conceived and recorded together. "Usually the first track we start off with sets the pace", Wiggins recalled. "We did it at 3 in the morning in Ray's studio in Sacramento, and we were just having fun with an Al Green vibe." As Saadiq remembered it, "I was just playing around and started singing off the top of my head. I never wrote anything down, it was just what came out."[4] "Annie May", one of Wiggins' songs for House of Music, had Saadiq's backing vocals pre-recorded and then overdubbed to the track's final mix.[10] One of Saadiq's songs for the album, "Me and the Blind Man", was excluded from the album's final mix because, as Saadiq told Yahoo! Music, "they didn't want anybody playing favorites, so one of my songs had to come off." The recording was a moody blues piece with surrealistic lyrics about lust, longing, and a fictitious blind man's secret powers. Saadiq wanted to show "a darker side ... some depth" to listeners with the song. "To me songs like 'Blind Man,' make the whole sound, the House of Music", he remarked. It was featured on an album sampler sent by the group's label to music journalists.[10]

Tony! Toni! Toné! completed recording House of Music in September 1996, and the album was then mastered by Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.[5] House of Music was titled after the name of a record store in the band's native Oakland, which had closed several years prior to the album's release.[4] In an interview for Billboard, Wiggins said of naming the album, "We title all our albums at the end of the project. We sat back and listened to everything, and it reminded us of this mom-and-pop store around our way in Oakland."[7] "We grew up in a house of music," Wiggins continued. "Our father was a blues guitarist, and the title just felt right. Music always brings people together."[1] The album's cover and booklet photos were taken by photographer William Claxton.[11]

Music and lyrics

"Lovin' You"
"Lovin' You" features electric piano, a slow groove, complex harmonies, and a saxophone solo.[12]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

According to music journalists, House of Music expanded on Tony! Toni! Toné!'s previous traditional R&B-influenced work by emphasizing live instrumentation and ballads.[13] In the opinion of Daily Herald writer Dan Kening, the album continued their past music's mix of contemporary R&B and "old-style soul", deeming it "half a tribute to their '60s and '70s soul music roots and half a masterful blend of modern smooth balladeering and danceable funk."[14] Salon critic Jennie Yabroff believed House of Music mostly featured "ballads – long, slow, emotional numbers with muted beats" that accentuated the lyrics.[15] According to Drum magazine, mid-tempo songs such as "Thinking of You" and "Still a Man" relied strongly on 1960s R&B/soul "given a contemporary face", while up-tempo songs such as "Lovin' You", "Don't Fall in Love", and "Let's Get Down" had elements of funk.[16]

The lyrics on House of Music were described by journalists as witty and sensitive.[17] Michaelangelo Matos of the Chicago Reader characterized Saadiq's songwriting as playful and quirky, while comparing his tenor singing voice to that of a young Michael Jackson. On Wiggins' songwriting style, Matos said his melodies and rhythms are more subtle than those of Saadiq and observed "burnished obbligatos, hushed burr, and starry-eyed falsetto" in Wiggins' singing.[18] Saadiq alternated as lead vocalist with Wiggins throughout the album.[14] Richard Torres of Newsday attributed the group's lyrics on the album to their "[belief] in the power of love and the lure of romance."[19]

According to Saadiq, the opening track "Thinking of You" is "a really soul, southern, funky song" inspired by Al Green.[1] It has light guitar strokes and is sung in a Southern twang by Saadiq, while "Top Notch" features jazz elements and the vocalist's playful promise of a trip to Denny's for "the most expensive dinner we can find".[20] On "Still a Man", he sings from the perspective of a man who was left by his wife to raise their children alone.[11] The backing vocalists sing the song's meditative hook, "Have you ever loved somebody / Who loves you so much it hurts you to hurt them so bad?"[21] On "Holy Smokes & Gee Whiz", Saadiq's older brother Randall Wiggins sings lead.[22] The song was described by Washington City Paper journalist Rickey Wright as an "update of the Stylistics' 'Betcha By Golly, Wow,'" with "a dead-on impression of Russell Thompkins' unmistakable falsetto and precise diction."[11] "Annie May" was written by Wiggins as a story about a "good girl next door" who becomes an exotic dancer, while "Let Me Know" is a love song with Wall of Sound elements.[23] According to Nick Krewen of The Spectator, "Wild Child" is "a ballad in the grand sense of Earth, Wind and Fire's 'Be Ever Wonderful.'"[24] "Party Don't Cry" is a meditation on mortality with jazzy, philosophical overtones.[25] Wright believed the song "expresses an overt spirituality unheard in the Tonyies' past songs".[11] The closing track is a gospel-influenced instrumental and variation of "Lovin' You" composed by Saadiq.[26] Its sole lyric is a universalist platitude.[11]

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[27]
Boston Herald[28]
Chicago Tribune[29]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[30]
Entertainment WeeklyA–[31]
Los Angeles Times[32]
Q[33]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[34]
USA Today[35]
The Village VoiceA[36]

House of Music was released on November 19, 1996, by Mercury Records and was Tony! Toni! Toné!'s fourth album. The label had intended on a release date during the peak holiday shopping period and ran ad campaigns scheduled for network cable, syndicated television shows, and radio stations.[37] House of Music reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 and spent 31 weeks on the chart.[38] In its first eight weeks, the album sold 318,502 copies in the US.[39] Tony! Toni! Toné! inaugurated its release with a satellite press conference and in-store performance at a small business retailer in the San Francisco Bay Area. They also embarked on a tour of historically black colleges and Black Independent Coalition record shops after "Let's Get Down" had been sent to R&B and crossover radio on October 28 as the album's lead single; its music video was released to outlets such as BET, The Box, and MTV.[37] Tony! Toni! Toné! performed the song as a musical guest on the sketch comedy show All That, and on the music variety program Soul Train, they performed "Let's Get Down" and "Annie May".[40] "Thinking of You" was released as the second single on March 11, 1997, by which time House of Music had sold 514,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[8] On August 6, the album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[41]

Reviewing House of Music in Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker found Tony! Toni! Toné!'s imitations of classic sounds "intelligent, sometimes brilliant", "witty", and "tremendously likable", with "a new recurring theme: what makes a man a man and a woman a woman, explored with both frankness and slyness."[31] Sonia Murray of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution hailed it as "the most versatile and efficacious of the trio's four albums", while Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot said "they find rapture that is steeped in reality rather than in the upwardly mobile fantasy concocted by many of today's less tradition-conscious R&B crooners."[42] "The Tonies serve as a sort of stylistic missing link", J. D. Considine wrote in The Baltimore Sun, "suggesting what would have happened had the soul styles of the '70s continued to evolve, instead of being tossed aside by the synth-driven sound of the '80s."[43] Michael A. Gonzales from Vibe said the album "glows a vision of blackness that is superbad, mad smooth, and crazy sexy."[44] He described it as "a wonderland of harmonic delights, softcore jollies, and slow-jam fever floating on the tip of Cupid's arrow", showing the group "exploring the sensuality of black pop without sounding like boulevard bullies stalking their objects of desire."[45] House of Music finished 30th in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll, which ranked the year's best albums as voted on by 236 American critics nationwide.[46] Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, named it the tenth best album of 1996 in his own year-end list.[47] In his review for the newspaper, he deemed "Thinking of You" a "hilariously gutsy" and spot-on Al Green homage while writing of the band's artistry on House of Music:

Raphael Saadiq and his henchmen give the r&b revival what for, constructing a generous original style from a varied history they know inside out—Tempts, Sly, Blue Magic, Kurtis Blow. And for almost every sound they provide a sharp song, which is more than Holland–Dozier–Holland and Gamble-Huff could manage when they were compelled to stick to one. Defeating second-half trail-off and a CD-age windiness the band isn't beatwise enough to beat, Saadiq's flexible, sensitive, slightly nasal tenor, spelled by the grain of D'wayne Wiggins's workaday baritone, recasts the tradition in its image.[36]

After House of Music was released, Tony! Toni! Toné! experienced growing tensions stemming from creative differences, business-related problems, and Saadiq's interest in a solo career.[48] "There's a quiet stress between us that no one really talks about", Saadiq told Vibe in 1997. "And what's sad about the whole thing is the fact that our friendship is disintegrating. Who knows, House of Music could be the last Tony Toni Toné album."[45] The band remained committed to promoting the record into 1997, including a February 28 taped performance at VH1's Hard Rock Live special.[49] According to Mercury vice president Marty Maidenberg, an international tour for the album had been planned by October 1996, with concert dates in Japan and the United Kingdom, but it never materialized. In November 1997, Saadiq told the Philadelphia Daily News "there should have been like four singles from that album. You'll have to call Mercury on that. It went Platinum with no promotional tour. We did our job and they made their money."[50] The group disbanded shortly afterwards, and each member went on to pursue an individual music career.[51]

In retrospect, Christgau attributed the album's success to Saadiq's lead role in Tony! Toni! Toné! while claiming "only with House of Music did they become true sons of the soul revival, the most accomplished r&b act of the '90s. That's still the album to remember them by."[52] AllMusic editor Leo Stanley later remarked on the band's "traditional soul and R&B values of songwriting" on the album, writing that they "successfully accomplish their fusion of the traditional and contemporary ... within the framework of memorable, catchy songs". According to Stanley, the record had an influence on contemporary neo soul artists such as Tony Rich and Maxwell.[27] In Matos' opinion, the album showcased the increasing artistic contrast between Saadiq and Wiggins, which "had grown so pronounced that the tension only enhanced what was already the group's best batch of songs."[18] Rashod Ollison of The Virginian-Pilot deemed the record "a flawless gem" on which the band's "amalgamation of traditional and contemporary styles coalesced beautifully".[53] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Fred Schruers said "House of Music consolidates the triumph of Sons of Soul for a masterpiece of 1990s R&B, an album that is as steeped in soul tradition as anything by Maxwell or D'Angelo, but that mixes the homage with humor and deft contemporary touches, thereby creating a new space all its own".[34]

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s)Producer(s) Length
1. "Thinking of You"  Timothy Christian Riley, Raphael Saadiq, D'wayne WigginsTony! Toni! Toné! 3:56
2. "Top Notch"  Elijah Baker, Saadiq, Kelvin WootenRaphael Saadiq 4:37
3. "Let's Get Down" (featuring DJ Quik)George Archie, David Blake, SaadiqRaphael Saadiq, DJ Quik, G-One 4:57
4. "Til Last Summer"  Riley, John T. Smith, WigginsD'wayne Wiggins, Timothy Christian Riley 5:11
5. "Lovin' You"  SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 5:52
6. "Still a Man"  SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 7:17
7. "Don't Fall in Love"  SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 4:44
8. "Holy Smokes & Gee Whiz"  Michelle Hailey, Carl Wheeler, WigginsD'wayne Wiggins 5:01
9. "Annie May"  Riley, WigginsD'wayne Wiggins 5:55
10. "Let Me Know"  Chalmers Alford, SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 4:15
11. "Tossin' & Turnin'"  WigginsD'wayne Wiggins 4:48
12. "Wild Child"  SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 5:36
13. "Party Don't Cry"  Riley, WigginsD'wayne Wiggins, Timothy Christian Riley 5:06
14. "Lovin' You (Interlude)"  SaadiqRaphael Saadiq 1:53

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]

Tony! Toni! Toné!

Additional musicians

  • Greg Adams – trumpet
  • Spanky Alford – guitar
  • George Archie – musician
  • Johnny Bamont – saxophone
  • Sue Ann Carwell – background vocals
  • Tommy Bradford – drums
  • Pete Escovedo – percussion
  • Clare Fischer – string arrangements
  • Mic Gillette – trombone
  • Elijah Baker Hassan – bass
  • Bobette Jamison-Harrison – background vocals
  • Vince Lars – saxophone
  • Marvin McFadden – trumpet
  • Nick Moroch – guitar
  • Bill Ortiz – trumpet
  • Conesha Owens – background vocals
  • Brenda Roy – background vocals
  • Sheila E. – percussion
  • Jackie Simley – background vocals
  • Joel Smith – bass, drums
  • Charles Veal – orchestration
  • Randall Wiggins – background vocals, vocals
  • Kelvin Wooten – keyboards, string arrangements
  • Benjamin Wright – string arrangements

Production

  • Danny Alonso – engineer
  • Mike Bogus – assistant engineer, engineer
  • Gerry Brown – engineer, mixing
  • Milton Chan – assistant engineer
  • William Claxton – photography
  • Jim Danis – assistant engineer
  • DJ Quik – producer, triangle, vocals
  • Tim Donovan – mixing assistant
  • Maureen Droney – production coordination
  • Steve Durkey – mixing assistant
  • Brian Gardner – mastering
  • Danny Goldberg – executive producer
  • Margery Greenspan – art direction
  • Darrin Harris – engineer
  • Carter Humphrey – mixing assistant
  • Richard Huredia – mixing assistant
  • Wes Johnson – assistant engineer
  • Booker T. Jones III – mixing
  • Ken Kessie – engineer, mixing
  • Brian Kinkel – engineer
  • Marty Main – assistant engineer, engineer
  • Bill Malina – editing, engineer, mixing
  • Jason Mauza – mixing assistant
  • Marty Ogden – engineer
  • Chris Puram – mixing
  • Tracy Riley – production coordination
  • Skip Saylor – engineer
  • Joey Swails – engineer, programming
  • Raymond Taylor-Smith – mixing assistant
  • Tony! Toni! Toné! – executive producer, producer
  • Tulio Torrinello, Jr. – engineer
  • Carl Wheeler – background vocals, engineer, keyboards
  • Terri Wong – assistant engineer
  • Brian Young – assistant engineer

Charts

Album

Chart (1996)[38] Peak
position
US Billboard 200 32
US Billboard Top R&B Albums 10

Singles

Song Chart (1997) Peak
position
"Let's Get Down" New Zealand Singles Chart[54] 8
UK Singles Chart[55] 33
US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay[56] 30
US Billboard Hot R&B Airplay[57] 4
"Thinking of You" New Zealand Singles Chart[58] 36
US Billboard Hot 100[59] 22
US Billboard Hot R&B Singles[59] 5

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Anon. (a) 1996, p. 12.
  2. ↑ Smith 1996, p. 16; Jones (a) 1996, p. 6.D.
  3. ↑ Coker 1997; Jones (a) 1996, p. 6.D.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones (a) 1996, p. 6.D.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Anon. (b) 1996.
  6. ↑ Anon. (c) 1996, p. 26.
  7. 1 2 3 Smith 1996, p. 16.
  8. 1 2 Reynolds 1997, p. 21.
  9. ↑ Anon. (a) 1997, p. EN16.
  10. 1 2 Linden 1997.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Wright 1997.
  12. ↑ Kening 1996, p. 6; Murray 1996, p. E6; Considine 1996, p. 2.
  13. ↑ Peitier 1997, p. 54; Brown 1996.
  14. 1 2 Kening 1996, p. 6.
  15. ↑ Yabroff 1996.
  16. ↑ Anon. (b) 1997, p. 66.
  17. ↑ Tucker 1996; Hooper 1996, p. I.4; Matos 2000.
  18. 1 2 Matos 2000.
  19. ↑ Torres 1997, p. C.27.
  20. ↑ Murray 1996, p. E6; Wright 1997.
  21. ↑ Murray 1996, p. E6.
  22. ↑ Wilson-Combs 2003; Anon. (b) 1996.
  23. ↑ Anon. (a) 1996, p. 12; Kening 1996, p. 6; Gonzales 1996, p. 168.
  24. ↑ Krewen 1997, p. D.4.
  25. ↑ Wright 1997; Kening 1996, p. 6.
  26. ↑ Yabroff 1996; Anon. (d) 1996.
  27. 1 2 Stanley n.d.
  28. ↑ Rodman 1996, p. s.18.
  29. ↑ Kot 1996.
  30. ↑ Larkin 2011.
  31. 1 2 Tucker 1996.
  32. ↑ Johnson 1996.
  33. ↑ Anon. (c) 1997, p. 102.
  34. 1 2 Schruers 2004, p. 818.
  35. ↑ Jones (b) 1996.
  36. 1 2 Christgau 1996.
  37. 1 2 Smith 1996, p. 20.
  38. 1 2 Anon. (a) n.d.
  39. ↑ Goldberg 1997.
  40. ↑ Anon. (b) n.d.; Anon. (c) n.d..
  41. ↑ Anon. (d) n.d.
  42. ↑ Murray 1996, p. E6; Kot 1996.
  43. ↑ Considine 1996, p. 2.
  44. ↑ Gonzales 1996, p. 168.
  45. 1 2 Gonzales 1997, p. 74.
  46. ↑ Anon. (d) 1997.
  47. ↑ Christgau 1997.
  48. ↑ Coker 1997; Reynolds 1997, p. 21.
  49. ↑ Coker 1997; Reynolds 1997, p. 21.
  50. ↑ Smith 1996, p. 20; Pendleton 1997.
  51. ↑ Green 2003, p. 168.
  52. ↑ Christgau 2008; Christgau 2000, p. 310.
  53. ↑ Ollison 2011.
  54. ↑ Anon. (e) n.d.
  55. ↑ Anon. (f) n.d.
  56. ↑ Anon. (e) 1997, p. 96.
  57. ↑ Anon. (f) 1997, p. 22.
  58. ↑ Anon. (g) n.d.
  59. 1 2 Anon. (h) n.d.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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