Stone Rollin is the fourth studio album by the American R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Raphael Saadiq. It was released on March 25, 2011, by Columbia Records and recorded at Saadiq's studio Blakesee Recording Company in Los Angeles over the course of a year.
Saadiq was inspired by the loud, raw quality of his concert performances in support of the 2008 album The Way I See It, leading him to pursue a grittier, more aggressive sound for Stone Rollin. Joined again by sound engineer Charles Brungardt, he expanded on its predecessor's traditional soul music style with sounds from rhythm and blues, rock, funk, blues, and psychedelic music. Most of the album's instrumentation was played by Saadiq, including the prominently featured Mellotron keyboard. With the help of arranger Paul Riser and engineer Gerry Brown, the singer also incorporated string and orchestral arrangements to the songs.
A widespread critical success, Stone Rollin was deemed by some reviewers as Saadiq's best work and noted for its stylistic breadth, groove-based compositions, and varied subject matter. It also became the singer's highest-charting album in the United States, reaching number 14 on the Billboard 200. He supported the release with a concert tour from March to August 2011.
Background In 2008, Raphael Saadiq released his third album The Way I See It,Staff (April 4, 2011). Raphael Saadiq Releases Stone Rollin' . RTTNews. Retrieved November 20, 2012. which featured 1960s Motown Sound-inspired songs with traditional soul music influences.Britton, Jack (March 2011). A Modern Throwback . EQ Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2012. The album was also an exemplary release of the "classic soul revival" during its peak at the time,Herman, Max (March 30, 2011). Interview: Raphael Saadiq . Illinois Entertainer. Retrieved November 20, 2012.Hague, Brittany (March 24, 2011). Raphael Saadiq Live at SXSW Brix Picks – Albums . Brix Picks. Retrieved November 20, 2012. a music scene marked by similarly retro-minded work from mainstream artists such as Amy Winehouse and Adele, independent acts such as Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Mayer Hawthorne, and older artists making comebacks such as Al Green and Bettye LaVette.Herrington, Chris (October 23, 2008). Reemerging Soul Music . Memphis Flyer. Retrieved November 20, 2012.Sullivan, James (March 8, 2010). SXSW Keynote Speaker Smokey Robinson Leads a Soul Revival in Austin . Spinner. Retrieved November 20, 2012. In promoting the album, Saadiq broadened his audience demographic and expanded as a touring artist, playing various music festivals throughout Europe and the United States.Press Here (January 6, 2011). . Press release. Retrieved November 20, 2012. Along with the musical aesthetic of the album, Saadiq himself adopted a vintage soul image, donning old-fashioned attire and performing traditional R&B dance moves at shows. His touring also inspired his approach for Stone Rollin, as he considered the louder, raw sound and general feeling of performing live.Thomas, Rich (March 23, 2011). Raphael Saadiq– Stone Rollin . Red Bull GmbH. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
Saadiq has said of his creative intentions with the follow-up, "I’ve never shut my ears to anything, really. It's not like I’m always looking for things, either, but I can't close my ears to any music. Any guitar, any drums, any rhythm section— I’ve always been open to those things, trying to understand what makes them work in a song". He was influenced by early rock and roll artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley,Lewis, Pete (April 2011). Raphael Saadiq: Putting the cool in ol' skool . Blues & Soul. Retrieved November 20, 2012. and has cited blues musician Howlin' Wolf as an influence on the album's sound, which he described as "bluesy" and "harder" than that of his previous album,Murphy, Keith (March 15, 2011). Raphael Saadiq Readies 'Stone Rollin'; Jams With Mary J. Blige . The Boombox. Retrieved November 20, 2012. with more aggressive tempos. In an interview for Bullett Magazine, Saadiq explained his idea of the album's title, stating "Stone Rollin basically symbolizes the action of throwing dice and taking chances with life. That's what I've done my whole career—taking chances with different styles of music and making choices that other people would be afraid to take. Stone Rollin means I'm going all the way out there this time".
Recording and production
Saadiq recorded Stone Rollin at Blakeslee Recording Company, his recording studio complex in Los Angeles, California. He spent approximately one year working on the album, including writing its music and lyrics. He worked on the album's production with recording engineer and long-time collaborator Charles Brungardt. The two shared an interest in collecting vintage musical gear and studying historic recording techniques, which they had applied in recording The Way I See It. However, for Stone Rollin, they sought to eschew its predecessor's Motown aesthetic for a more eclectic style, in keeping with Saadiq's other musical projects.
According to Brungardt, the recording of the project's earlier songs, "Heart Attack", was critical in their decision for the album. The song was recorded during Saadiq's break from touring for The Way I See It and had originally featured that album's sound, with which they were not satisfied. When they revisited the song, Saadiq reconstructed the original recording after stripping track's individually recorded instrument parts, with the exception of the vocals and some of its drums. In an interview for EQ Magazine, Brungardt said of their approach, "We wanted to evolve the songs, and I wanted to evolve the engineering, as well. On The Way I See It, everything was pretty much tube pre's and tube compressors. On this one, I wanted to play around with some of the more solid-state gear".
For the majority of the recordings, Saadiq played most of the instruments, including bass, keyboard, guitar, Mellotron, percussion, and drums, and he also layered each recorded instrumental part afterwards. Brungardt used a Neumann U47 microphone to record each of Saadiq's instrument parts. Saadiq recorded his vocals on a dynamic microphone alone in the recording studio's control room, an approach encouraged to him earlier in his career by record producer and audio engineer Gerry Brown. According to Brungardt, "[Saadiq's] voice benefits from a dynamic mic because it tends to give him more bottom and presence. Plus dynamic mics can sound a little older when pushed".
For several songs, Saadiq incorporated lush orchestration and strings as predominant elements. He worked on the orchestral recording with Brown and arranger Paul Riser at Ocean Way Recording's Studio B in Los Angeles, while the songs' horn parts were mostly recorded at the Blakeslee studio. Brown also worked with Saadiq on the album's tracking at Blakeslee. With the songs' guitar parts, Brungardt wanted to create additional distortion in order to produce a grittier guitar sound for the songs, a stylistic preference Saadiq and he had acquired from listening to a great deal of indie rock at the time. He applied several techniques to achieve this sound, including increasing the gain on Saadiq's Fender Twin guitar amplifier, using a software plug-in for the recordings in post-production, and re-amping Saadiq's guitar parts. In his interview for EQ Magazine, Brungardt discussed using a Massey TapeHead, one of his preferred plug-ins, in the recording process, stating "I’ll use that on a lot of things to get a little more grit. It thickens stuff up nicely if you record something that's a little too bright. I usually go a lot for darker tones when recording and mixing".
Some of the album's songs were recorded by Saadiq with his live band, which included drummer Lemar Carter, bassist Calvin Turner, and guitarist Rob Bacon. Bacon, who had played with Saadiq since 2002, said of their grittier approach to guitar, "I have relative pitch, as opposed to perfect pitch, so there'd be times when I'd spend 15 or 20 minutes tuning my instrument. Then he'd come in and pick up his guitar and just start playing it however it was left the day before. On one of the tracks I had to play over all this stuff that was out of tune. Raphael was like, 'That's what makes it funky!'.Wood, Mikael (May 15, 2011). Raphael Saadiq gets rowdy . Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 20, 2012. Musical guests such as vocalist Yukimi Nagano, keyboardist Larry Dunn, bass player Larry Graham, keyboardist Amp Fiddler, and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph also contributed to the album's recording sessions, with Saadiq selecting their parts for certain tracks.Mulugeta, Selamawit (May 11, 2011). The Source – Raphael Saadiq: “I do exactly what Hip-Hop did.” . The Source. Retrieved November 20, 2012. The song "Go to Hell" was conceived from one of Amp Fiddler's Mellotron ideas. Saadiq recorded a duet with Graham called "The Perfect Storm", included as a hidden track on the album: "I played bass, but I put my bass down [laughs]. The first day I tried to play bass for him, I couldn't even play. I froze three times. He's my all-time idol!".
The album was mixed using Pro Tools in Blakeslee Recording Company's Studio A, with the SSL 4000 used mostly for monitoring, and using the SSL 9000 in the "C" room. During mixing, Brungardt used equalization filters such as a McDSP FilterBank plug-in and Waves Renaissance EQ to handle excessive high end in spots, and he utilized other equipment for additional sound effects, including a Line 6 Echo Farm, a Roland Space Echo, and an Echoplex clone.
Music and lyrics
Musically, Stone Rollin expands on the Motown-inspired material of Saadiq's previous album and includes various other R&B styles. Along with mid-tempo soul songs, Stone Rollin features styles such as early R&B-rooted rock and roll, rock-inspired funk,Bradley, Lloyd (April 5, 2011). BBC – Music – Review of Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ . BBC Online. Retrieved November 20, 2012. Chess Records-blues,Graff, Gary (May 30, 2011). Raphael Saadiq Talks Stone Rollin' Influences, Being 'Raw' Raphael Saadiq Talks 'Stone Rollin' Influences, Being 'Raw']. Billboard. Retrieved November 20, 2012. and the more expansive orchestral sound of post-Detroit Motown and 1970s Philadelphia soul.Sterdan, Darryl (May 6, 2011). CANOE –– JAM! Music: This week's CD reviews. Jam!. Retrieved November 20, 2012.Hart, Tina (April 6, 2011). When MSN met Raphael Saadiq Music blog . MSN UK Music. Retrieved November 20, 2012. Disc jockey Chris Douridas described Saadiq's sound as "a hybrid form that's rooted in these familiar elements from classic soul but recontextualized with a modern sound". Nick Butler of Sputnikmusic called the album's songs "belters" and "guitar-heavy", and wrote of its musical influences, "While Prince informs the sound of this more than anybody, it's a very early-'70s sounding album on the whole [...] but there are influences that go back even further than that – Ray Charles and Little Richard in particular inform some of this record's more energetic moments." Los Angeles Times journalist Mikael Wood said of the album's sound and production, "Where Saadiq's previous efforts luxuriated in the layering and the fine-tuning made possible by modern recording gear, Stone Rollin presents a rawer, rowdier soul-rock sound modeled after his energetic stage show".