House of Music
Encyclopedia
House of Music is the fourth studio album
by American R&B
group Tony! Toni! Toné!
, released November 19, 1996, on Mercury Records
. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios during 1995 to 1996, with production handled primarily by the group members. Following the success of their 1993 album Sons of Soul
and their hiatus as a group, Tony! Toni! Toné! members Raphael Saadiq
, D'wayne Wiggins
, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songs for the album independently before putting together their finished recordings. House of Music expands on their previous work's classicist R&B influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music writers have noted the album for its incorporation of traditional and contemporary musical styles, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics.
The album reached number 32 on the US Billboard 200
chart, on which it spent 31 weeks. It was certified platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) within its first year of release, having shipped one million copies in the United States. Two single
s were released in promotion of the album, "Let's Get Down" and "Thinking of You". Upon its release, House of Music received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its musical style, classicist influences, and the group's musicianship and songwriting. An expected international tour in support of the album did not materialize and it proved to be the group's last album together, as they subsequently disbanded due to creative differences and pursued separate music careers.
, Tony! Toni! Toné! took a hiatus as a group. During their break, the group's main members Raphael Wiggins
, D'wayne Wiggins
, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists, including D'Angelo
, En Vogue
, Karyn White
, Tevin Campbell
, and A Tribe Called Quest
. Raphael Wiggins adopted the surname Saadiq for his professional name in 1994, meaning "man of his word" in Arabic, and released his solo single
"Ask of You
" in 1995. Their work outside the group led to rumors of a break-up during the time between albums.
House of Music was titled after the name of a record store
in the group's native Oakland, California, which had closed several years prior to the album's release. In an interview for Billboard
, D'wayne 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." The album's cover and booklet photos were taken by photographer William Claxton
.
in Los Angeles, and Pookie Labs and Woodshed Studios in Sacramento. The group applied vintage recording equipment for the album and a 40-piece orchestra for some tracks. In contrast to their previous work, each member arranged, composed, and produced songs on their own before putting the finished recordings together. In a 1997 interview, Raphael Saadiq said of working independently of Wiggins and Riley, "What I did was write a lot of stuff and rehearse it for about a month, then recorded it live. Then they would add their parts separately." He worked with his own recording crew, which included guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford
, drummer Tommy Branford, and keyboardists Kelvin Wooten and Cedric Draper.
The album's opening track, "Thinking of You", is one song that the group conceived and recorded together. D'wayne Wiggins recounted its recording in an interview for USA Today
, "Usually the first track we start off with sets the pace. 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." Saadiq later said of developing the song, "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." "Annie May", one of Wiggins' songs for the album, had Saadiq's backing vocals overdubbed
to the track.
Wiggins found the group's hiatus constructive to recording a follow-up album, so as not to produce an album derivative of Sons of Soul, and said of the album's music in an interview for Billboard, "It's not 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." The group also intended on recording with an emphasis on musicianship rather than production. Wiggins noted a lack of synthesizer
s as distinctive of the music, adding that "On a lot of the songs, you can just imagine a five-piece band performing." Guest musicians for the album included rapper and producer DJ Quik
, percussionist Sheila E.
, and the Tower of Power
horn section. House of Music was mastered
by audio engineer Brian Gardner
at Bernie Grundman Mastering
in Hollywood, California.
One of Saadiq's songs for the album, "Me and the Blind Man", was excluded from the album's final mix
. Originally issued on an album sampler sent by the group's label to music journalists, the recording is a moody, bluesy song with surreal lyrics about lust, longing, and a fictitious blind man's secret powers. In a 1997 interview for Yahoo! Music
, Saadiq expressed that he meant to show "a darker side [...] some depth" to listeners with the song and said of its significance to the album, "To me songs like 'Blind Man,' make the whole sound, the House of Music." He said that it was not included on the album to equally represent each group members' songwriting, stating "They didn't want anybody playing favorites, so one of my songs had to come off."
House of Music expands on the group's previous classicist R&B-influenced work with live instrumentation and an emphasis on ballads. Dan Kening of the Daily Herald describes it as "half a tribute to their '60s and '70s soul music
roots and half a masterful blend of modern smooth balladeering and danceable funk
." Music journalist Jennie Yabroff denotes the album's songs as primarily "ballads — long, slow, emotional numbers with muted beats" that accent their lyrics. Drum writes that mid-tempo songs such as "Thinking of You" and "Still a Man" "lean heavily on '60s soul/R&B given a contemporary face," while up-tempo songs such as "Lovin' You", "Don't Fall in Love", and "Let's Get Down" have elements of funk.
Music writers have described the songs' lyrics as witty and sensitive. Michaelangelo Matos of the Chicago Reader characterizes Saadiq's songwriting as playful and quirky, and compares his tenor
singing voice to that of a young Michael Jackson
. Of Wiggins' songwriting style, Matos describes his melodies and rhythms as more subtle than those of Saadiq and notes "burnished obbligatos, hushed burr, and starry-eyed falsetto" in Wiggins' singing. Saadiq alternates on lead vocals with Wiggins throughout the album. Richard Torres of Newsday
attributes the group's lyrics and themes on the album to their "[belief] in the power of love
and the lure of romance."
. "Top Notch" contains musical elements of jazz
and psychedelic music
. "Let's Get Down" features rapper DJ Quik
and a dance, funk-based sound with a repeating acoustic guitar figure
. "Til Last Summer", a ballad about love lost and found, has smooth vocals by Wiggins and a mellow style similar to the group's 1993 song "Anniversary". DJ Quick contributed with triangle
on the song. "Lovin' You" features prominent electric piano, a saxaphone solo, a slow groove, and complex harmonies. "Still a Man" has female backing vocalists and pleading vocals by Saadiq, who sings from the perspective of a man who was left by his wife to raise their children alone. 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?"
The lyrics of "Don't Fall in Love" concern adult romance and advise against falling in love with a woman without becoming familiar with her. "Holy Smokes & Gee Whiz" features lighthearted lyrics by D'wayne Wiggins and lead vocals by Randall Wiggins, his and Saadiq's older brother. It has been described by one writer as an "update of the Stylistics
' 'Betcha By Golly, Wow,' which contains [...] a dead-on impression of Russell Thompkins
' unmistakable falsetto
and precise diction." "Annie May" is a salacious, humorous song about a lapdancer. "Let Me Know" is a traditional love song with smooth harmonies and a Wall of Sound
-influenced sound. "Wild Child" features thick bass lines and heavy incorporation of the Hammond organ
. Nick Krewen of The Spectator
describes it as "a ballad in the grand sense of Earth, Wind and Fire
's 'Be Ever Wonderful.'" "Party Don't Cry" is a meditation on mortality with jazzy, philosophical tones. Rickey Wright of the Washington City Paper
writes that the song "expresses an overt spirituality unheard in the Tonyies' past songs." The closing track is a gospel
-influenced instrumental and variation
of "Lovin' You" composed by Saadiq. Its sole lyric is a universalist platitude.
. The label 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. Tony! Toni! Toné! inaugurated the album's release with a satellite press conference
and in-store performance at a small business retailer in the San Francisco Bay Area
. The album's lead single
, "Let's Get Down", was sent R&B and crossover
radio on October 28. Its release was commenced with a black college
concert tour and 14-city in-store tour at Black Independent Coalition record shops, while a music video
was released to outlets such as BET
, The Box, and MTV
. Tony! Toni! Toné! performed the song as a musical guest on the sketch comedy show All That
. They also performed "Let's Get Down" and "Annie May" on Soul Train
. The second single "Thinking of You" was released on March 11, 1997.
Upon the album's release, the group dealt with growing tensions stemming from creative differences, business-related problems, and Saadiq's intentions for a solo career. In an interview for Vibe at the time, Saadiq said of the situation within the group, "There's a quiet stress between us that no one really talks about. 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." However, they remained commited to promoting House of Music through 1997. On February 28, the group taped a performance for VH1
's Hard Rock Live special. According to an interview with Mercury vice president Marty Maidenberg in October 1996, an international tour in promotion of the album was expected, with concert dates in Japan and the United Kingdom, but no tour materialized. In a November 1997 interview for the Philadelphia Daily News
, Saadiq said of the promotion and their record label, "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." They subsequently disbanded and each member pursued an individual music career.
chart. It spent 31 weeks on the chart. It also reached number 10 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums
, spending 44 weeks on the chart. House of Music sold 318,502 copies in its first eight weeks. By March 1997, it had sold 514,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan
. On August 6, 1997, the album was certified platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
, for shipments of one million copies in the United States.
s upon its release. Billboard
praised its musical diversity and stated, "the group's mastery of hip, alternative sound will prevent [the] album from being seen as derivative." Chicago Tribune
writer Greg Kot
complimented the album's "rich old-school feel" and "some superbly executed homages to vintage heroes," stating "The Tonys don't borrow the sound so much as an attitude, as 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." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
praised the group's "intelligent, sometimes brilliant pastiche" and stated, "Their usual witty, tremendously likable collection appears on House of Music, with a new recurring theme: what makes a man a man and a woman a woman, explored with both frankness and slyness." Los Angeles Times
writer Connie Johnson noted its "slow-simmering jams that are long on retro-soul authenticity" and commented that "It's a sign of their own youthful spark and ingenuity that they can make a sound so old and familiar seem new again." Q
called it "a startlingly diverse set that slips easily from the Stevie Wonder
slow-strut of 'Lovin' You,' through the Jackson 5-alike 'Annie May' and beyond, taking in Memphis soul
and Philly
smooth
en route to glistening swingbeat
and seductive after-hours balladry."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
dubbed the album "the most versatile and efficacious of the trio's four albums" and stated, "House of Music draws emoting tips from '60s Sam Cooke
; its musicianship is powered to compete with the Earth Wind & Fire
of the '70s, and its funk wrenches sweat like the early '80s work of Cameo
and Brick
. But in a nod to Tony Toni Tone's inventiveness, it still manages to make each masterful re-creation new and meaningful." J.D. Considine
of The Baltimore Sun
complimented the group's "retro-soul" stylings, but also commented that "the album is hardly a throwback [...] Instead, the Tonies serve as a sort of stylistic missing link, 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." Boston Herald
writer Sarah Rodman gave the album four out of four stars and stated, "The party jams and bedroom ballads may bubble and boil with retro grooves borrowed from Marvin Gaye
, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince
, the Stylistics
and Al Green
, but the Bay Area trio's creamy vocals, top-notch band and live-wire energy make its music as vital and infectious as any jeep beats currently on the charts."
Michael A. Gonzales of Vibe commended the group for "us[ing] their elders as sketches for their personalized, complete sound paintings," writing that "Like a blaxploitation
flick soundtrack, House of Music glows a vision of blackness
that is superbad, mad smooth, and crazy sexy." Gonzales described it as "a wonderland of harmonic delights, softcore jollies, and slow-jam
fever floating on the tip of Cupid
's arrow" and wrote that it "shows the group exploring the sensuality of black pop without sounding like boulevard bullies stalking their objects of desire." Drum gave it five out of five stars and stated, "Appropriately called House of Music, the album is a showcase of the group's genius at composition, vocals and playing live instruments - there's no detectable computerisation in the music." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice
, critic Robert Christgau
gave the album an A rating, indicating "a record that rarely flags for more than two or three tracks." He called "Thinking of You" a "hilariously gutsy Al Green hommage that knows the great man's every moue and off-beat" and elaborated on the group's musical "virtuosity" with the album, stating:
artists such as Tony Rich and Maxwell
at the time and concluded that "House of Music continues the Tonies' tradition of excellence and demonstrates that the group is getting stronger and better all the time." Yahoo! Music
's Scott Wilson praised the group's "craft" as "razor sharp by this record, and their crossover ability amazing as they infuse so many different elements into their music." Chicago Reader writer Michaelangelo Matos viewed that the album showcased Saadiq's and Wiggins' respective songwriting, stating "the contrast between Saadiq's and Wiggins's styles had grown so pronounced that the tension only enhanced what was already the group's best batch of songs."
Rashod Ollison of The Virginian-Pilot
called the album "a flawless gem" and stated, "Their amalgamation of traditional and contemporary styles coalesced beautifully. Their influences [...] are apparent throughout. But the Tonys never come off as imitators. Their winking sense of humor and passion for tradition flow in well-structured songs, glimmering with smart modern touches. The melodies are sturdy and memorable, qualties rarely found in modern R&B." In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), music journalist Fred Schruers stated, "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 [...] Though the 70-minute disc doesn't deliver hooks from start to finish, the mood and groove never falter, standing with the best product ever put together by Gamble and Huff."
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
group Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
, released November 19, 1996, on Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios during 1995 to 1996, with production handled primarily by the group members. Following the success of their 1993 album Sons of Soul
Sons of Soul
Sons of Soul is the third studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, released June 22, 1993, on Wing Records. It was produced entirely produced by the group, who intended to pay homage with the album to their musical influences. Recording sessions for the album took place at various...
and their hiatus as a group, Tony! Toni! Toné! members Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
, D'wayne Wiggins
D'wayne Wiggins
D'wayne Wiggins is an American musician, blues guitarist, producer, composer and community activist, best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!.- Early life :...
, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songs for the album independently before putting together their finished recordings. House of Music expands on their previous work's classicist R&B influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music writers have noted the album for its incorporation of traditional and contemporary musical styles, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics.
The album reached number 32 on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, on which it spent 31 weeks. It was certified platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) within its first year of release, having shipped one million copies in the United States. Two single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
s were released in promotion of the album, "Let's Get Down" and "Thinking of You". Upon its release, House of Music received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its musical style, classicist influences, and the group's musicianship and songwriting. An expected international tour in support of the album did not materialize and it proved to be the group's last album together, as they subsequently disbanded due to creative differences and pursued separate music careers.
Background
Following the commercial and critical success of their 1993 album Sons of SoulSons of Soul
Sons of Soul is the third studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, released June 22, 1993, on Wing Records. It was produced entirely produced by the group, who intended to pay homage with the album to their musical influences. Recording sessions for the album took place at various...
, Tony! Toni! Toné! took a hiatus as a group. During their break, the group's main members Raphael Wiggins
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
, D'wayne Wiggins
D'wayne Wiggins
D'wayne Wiggins is an American musician, blues guitarist, producer, composer and community activist, best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!.- Early life :...
, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists, including D'Angelo
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer , better known by his stage name D'Angelo, is an American R&B and neo soul singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is known for his production and songwriting talents as much as for his vocal abilities, and often draws comparisons to his influences,...
, En Vogue
En Vogue
En Vogue is an American female R&B vocal group from Oakland, California assembled by music producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy.The group has won more MTV Video Music Awards than any other female group in MTV history, a total of seven, along with four Soul Train Awards, six American Music...
, Karyn White
Karyn White
Karyn White was a new jack swing singer who became popular during the late 1980s.-Biography:White was born in Los Angeles,to the parentage of Vivian and Clarence White. She is the youngest of five children...
, Tevin Campbell
Tevin Campbell
Tevin Jermod Campbell is an American R&B singer-songwriter and actor. He scored a string of R&B chart hits as a teenager in the early to mid-1990s.-Music career:...
, and A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...
. Raphael Wiggins adopted the surname Saadiq for his professional name in 1994, meaning "man of his word" in Arabic, and released his solo single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Ask of You
Ask of You
"Ask of You" is a song by American singer Raphael Saadiq, released as a single from the Higher Learning soundtrack. It was Saadiq's biggest solo hit, peaking at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the U.S...
" in 1995. Their work outside the group led to rumors of a break-up during the time between albums.
House of Music was titled after the name of a record store
Record shop
A record shop or record store is an outlet that sells recorded music. Although vinyl records and audio cassettes are no longer sold in the majority of music stores, in favour of compact discs and home video recordings products, people in some countries, like the UK, still use the term "record...
in the group's native Oakland, California, which had closed several years prior to the album's release. In an interview for Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, D'wayne 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
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
store around our way in Oakland." The album's cover and booklet photos were taken by photographer William Claxton
William Claxton (photographer)
William Claxton was an American photographer and author.-Biography:Born in Pasadena, California, Claxton's works included a book of photographs of Steve McQueen, and Jazz Life, a book of photographs depicting jazz artists in the 1960s. He was most noted for his photography of jazz musicians...
.
Recording
Recording sessions for the album took place during September 1995 to September 1996 at various recording 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 StudiosWestlake Recording Studios
Westlake Recording Studios is a well-known music recording studio in West Hollywood, CA.-History:The studio was founded as Westlake Audio in the early 1970s by Tom Hidley, and is credited as "one of the first big commercial efforts to produce acoustically standardised 'interchangeable' rooms"...
in Los Angeles, and Pookie Labs and Woodshed Studios in Sacramento. The group applied vintage recording equipment for the album and a 40-piece orchestra for some tracks. In contrast to their previous work, each member arranged, composed, and produced songs on their own before putting the finished recordings together. In a 1997 interview, Raphael Saadiq said of working independently of Wiggins and Riley, "What I did was write a lot of stuff and rehearse it for about a month, then recorded it live. Then they would add their parts separately." He worked with his own recording crew, which included guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford
Chalmers Alford
Chalmers Edward "Spanky" Alford was an American three time Grammy winning jazz guitarist. Alford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was well known for his playing style and use of arpeggiations...
, drummer Tommy Branford, and keyboardists Kelvin Wooten and Cedric Draper.
The album's opening track, "Thinking of You", is one song that the group conceived and recorded together. D'wayne Wiggins recounted its recording in an interview for USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, "Usually the first track we start off with sets the pace. We did it at 3 in the morning in Ray's studio in Sacramento, and we were just having fun with an Al Green
Al Green
Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
vibe." Saadiq later said of developing the song, "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." "Annie May", one of Wiggins' songs for the album, had Saadiq's backing vocals overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
to the track.
Wiggins found the group's hiatus constructive to recording a follow-up album, so as not to produce an album derivative of Sons of Soul, and said of the album's music in an interview for Billboard, "It's not 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." The group also intended on recording with an emphasis on musicianship rather than production. Wiggins noted a lack of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s as distinctive of the music, adding that "On a lot of the songs, you can just imagine a five-piece band performing." Guest musicians for the album included rapper and producer DJ Quik
DJ Quik
David Martin Blake , better known by his stage name DJ Quik, is an MC and record producer. According to Quik himself, his stage name reflects his ability to produce records in short time....
, percussionist Sheila E.
Sheila E.
Sheila Escovedo , known by her stage name Sheila E., is an American drummer and percussionist, perhaps best known for her work with Prince, George Duke and Ringo Starr.-Early life and Prince period:...
, and the Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
horn section. House of Music was mastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
by audio engineer Brian Gardner
Brian Gardner
Brian Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner is a mastering engineer. He has worked on countless recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk, and dance pop. He is perhaps best known for his work on hip hop albums and in...
at Bernie Grundman Mastering
Bernie Grundman
-Biography:He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.Grundman...
in Hollywood, California.
One of Saadiq's songs for the album, "Me and the Blind Man", was excluded from the album's final mix
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
. Originally issued on an album sampler sent by the group's label to music journalists, the recording is a moody, bluesy song with surreal lyrics about lust, longing, and a fictitious blind man's secret powers. In a 1997 interview for Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
, Saadiq expressed that he meant to show "a darker side [...] some depth" to listeners with the song and said of its significance to the album, "To me songs like 'Blind Man,' make the whole sound, the House of Music." He said that it was not included on the album to equally represent each group members' songwriting, stating "They didn't want anybody playing favorites, so one of my songs had to come off."
Music and lyrics
House of Music expands on the group's previous classicist R&B-influenced work with live instrumentation and an emphasis on ballads. Dan Kening of the Daily Herald describes it as "half a tribute to their '60s and '70s soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
roots and half a masterful blend of modern smooth balladeering and danceable funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
." Music journalist Jennie Yabroff denotes the album's songs as primarily "ballads — long, slow, emotional numbers with muted beats" that accent their lyrics. Drum writes that mid-tempo songs such as "Thinking of You" and "Still a Man" "lean heavily on '60s soul/R&B given a contemporary face," while up-tempo songs such as "Lovin' You", "Don't Fall in Love", and "Let's Get Down" have elements of funk.
Music writers have described the songs' lyrics as witty and sensitive. Michaelangelo Matos of the Chicago Reader characterizes Saadiq's songwriting as playful and quirky, and compares his tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
singing voice to that of a young Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. Of Wiggins' songwriting style, Matos describes his melodies and rhythms as more subtle than those of Saadiq and notes "burnished obbligatos, hushed burr, and starry-eyed falsetto" in Wiggins' singing. Saadiq alternates on lead vocals with Wiggins throughout the album. Richard Torres of Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
attributes the group's lyrics and themes on the album to their "[belief] in the power of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
and the lure of romance."
Content
The opening track "Thinking of You" has been described by Saadiq as "a really soul, southern, funky song" whose style references that of singer Al Green. It has light guitar brushes and features him vocalizing in a Southern twangSouthern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
. "Top Notch" contains musical elements of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and psychedelic music
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
. "Let's Get Down" features rapper DJ Quik
DJ Quik
David Martin Blake , better known by his stage name DJ Quik, is an MC and record producer. According to Quik himself, his stage name reflects his ability to produce records in short time....
and a dance, funk-based sound with a repeating acoustic guitar figure
Figure (music)
A musical figure is the shortest idea in music, a short succession of notes, often recurring. It may have melodic pitch, harmonic progression and rhythmic . The 1964 Grove's Dictionary defines the figure as "the exact counterpart of the German 'motiv' and the French 'motif'": it produces a "single...
. "Til Last Summer", a ballad about love lost and found, has smooth vocals by Wiggins and a mellow style similar to the group's 1993 song "Anniversary". DJ Quick contributed with triangle
Triangle (instrument)
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
on the song. "Lovin' You" features prominent electric piano, a saxaphone solo, a slow groove, and complex harmonies. "Still a Man" has female backing vocalists and pleading vocals by Saadiq, who sings from the perspective of a man who was left by his wife to raise their children alone. The backing vocalists sing the song's meditative hook
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
, "Have you ever loved somebody / Who loves you so much it hurts you to hurt them so bad?"
The lyrics of "Don't Fall in Love" concern adult romance and advise against falling in love with a woman without becoming familiar with her. "Holy Smokes & Gee Whiz" features lighthearted lyrics by D'wayne Wiggins and lead vocals by Randall Wiggins, his and Saadiq's older brother. It has been described by one writer as an "update of the Stylistics
The Stylistics
The Stylistics are a soul music vocal group, and were one of the best-known Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. They formed in 1968, and were composed of lead Russell Thompkins, Jr., Herbie Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads, graced by the...
' 'Betcha By Golly, Wow,' which contains [...] a dead-on impression of Russell Thompkins
Russell Thompkins, Jr.
Russell Allen Thompkins, Jr. is an American soul singer. Noted for his high-pitched tenor and falsetto vocals, Thompkins is the former lead singer of the Philadelphia soul vocal group The Stylistics.-Career:...
' unmistakable falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
and precise diction." "Annie May" is a salacious, humorous song about a lapdancer. "Let Me Know" is a traditional love song with smooth harmonies and a Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
-influenced sound. "Wild Child" features thick bass lines and heavy incorporation of the Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
. Nick Krewen of The Spectator
The Hamilton Spectator
The Hamilton Spectator, founded in 1846, is a newspaper published every day but Sunday in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The paper has a daily circulation of 105,000 and a daily readership of nearly 260,000.-History:...
describes it as "a ballad in the grand sense of Earth, Wind and Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...
's 'Be Ever Wonderful.'" "Party Don't Cry" is a meditation on mortality with jazzy, philosophical tones. Rickey Wright of the Washington City Paper
Washington City Paper
The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
writes that the song "expresses an overt spirituality unheard in the Tonyies' past songs." The closing track is a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
-influenced instrumental and variation
Variation (music)
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
of "Lovin' You" composed by Saadiq. Its sole lyric is a universalist platitude.
Release and promotion
The group's fourth album, House of Music was released on November 19, 1996, by Mercury RecordsMercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
. The label 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. Tony! Toni! Toné! inaugurated the album's release with a satellite press conference
Virtual press conference
The virtual press conference is much like a news conference. It is a conference where the speaker is sitting in a chair in a studio for example whilst the video and audio are relayed via satellite to another location....
and in-store performance at a small business retailer in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. The album's lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
, "Let's Get Down", was sent R&B and crossover
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
radio on October 28. Its release was commenced with a black college
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
concert tour and 14-city in-store tour at Black Independent Coalition record shops, while a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was released to outlets such as BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
, The Box, and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. Tony! Toni! Toné! performed the song as a musical guest on the sketch comedy show All That
All That
All That is an American live-action, sketch comedy-variety show that aired on the Nickelodeon cable television network featuring short comedic sketches and weekly musical guests. The theme song for All That was performed by TLC...
. They also performed "Let's Get Down" and "Annie May" on Soul Train
Soul Train
Soul Train is an American musical variety show that aired in syndication from October 1971 to March 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared.As a nod to Soul Trains...
. The second single "Thinking of You" was released on March 11, 1997.
Upon the album's release, the group dealt with growing tensions stemming from creative differences, business-related problems, and Saadiq's intentions for a solo career. In an interview for Vibe at the time, Saadiq said of the situation within the group, "There's a quiet stress between us that no one really talks about. 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." However, they remained commited to promoting House of Music through 1997. On February 28, the group taped a performance for VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's Hard Rock Live special. According to an interview with Mercury vice president Marty Maidenberg in October 1996, an international tour in promotion of the album was expected, with concert dates in Japan and the United Kingdom, but no tour materialized. In a November 1997 interview for the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
, Saadiq said of the promotion and their record label, "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." They subsequently disbanded and each member pursued an individual music career.
Commercial performance
The album peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart. It spent 31 weeks on the chart. It also reached number 10 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
, spending 44 weeks on the chart. House of Music sold 318,502 copies in its first eight weeks. By March 1997, it had sold 514,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
. On August 6, 1997, the album was certified platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, for shipments of one million copies in the United States.
Critical response
House of Music received general acclaim from music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s upon its release. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
praised its musical diversity and stated, "the group's mastery of hip, alternative sound will prevent [the] album from being seen as derivative." Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
writer Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
complimented the album's "rich old-school feel" and "some superbly executed homages to vintage heroes," stating "The Tonys don't borrow the sound so much as an attitude, as 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." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
praised the group's "intelligent, sometimes brilliant pastiche" and stated, "Their usual witty, tremendously likable collection appears on House of Music, with a new recurring theme: what makes a man a man and a woman a woman, explored with both frankness and slyness." Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Connie Johnson noted its "slow-simmering jams that are long on retro-soul authenticity" and commented that "It's a sign of their own youthful spark and ingenuity that they can make a sound so old and familiar seem new again." Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
called it "a startlingly diverse set that slips easily from the Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
slow-strut of 'Lovin' You,' through the Jackson 5-alike 'Annie May' and beyond, taking in Memphis soul
Memphis soul
Memphis soul, also known as Memphis Sound, is stylish, funky, uptown soul music that is not as hard-edged as Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn lines, organ, bass, and a driving...
and Philly
Philadelphia soul
Philadelphia soul, sometimes called the Philadelphia Sound or Sweet Philly, is a style of soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often featuring sweeping strings and piercing horns. The subtle sound of a glockenspiel can often be heard in the background of...
smooth
Smooth soul
Smooth soul is a subgenre of soul music that developed in the early 1970s from soul, funk and pop music in the United States. The subgenre experienced mainstream success from the time of its development to the late 1970s, before its succession by disco and quiet storm.Smooth soul is characterized...
en route to glistening swingbeat
New jack swing
New jack swing or swingbeat is a fusion genre spearheaded by Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle which became extremely popular from the late-1980s into the mid-1990s. Its influence, along with hip-hop, seeped into pop culture and was the definitive sound of the inventive Black New York club scene...
and seductive after-hours balladry."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
dubbed the album "the most versatile and efficacious of the trio's four albums" and stated, "House of Music draws emoting tips from '60s Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
; its musicianship is powered to compete with the Earth Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...
of the '70s, and its funk wrenches sweat like the early '80s work of Cameo
Cameo (band)
Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...
and Brick
Brick (band)
Brick is a former American band that created a successful merger of funk and jazz in the 1970s. Their most popular single was "Dazz", which was released in 1976.-History:...
. But in a nod to Tony Toni Tone's inventiveness, it still manages to make each masterful re-creation new and meaningful." J.D. Considine
J. D. Considine
J. D. Considine is an established music critic who has been writing about music professionally since 1977. His work has been published in numerous newspapers and music magazines, and he has contributed to several books. Over the years, he has claimed to have put over three million words into...
of The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
complimented the group's "retro-soul" stylings, but also commented that "the album is hardly a throwback [...] Instead, the Tonies serve as a sort of stylistic missing link, 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." Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
writer Sarah Rodman gave the album four out of four stars and stated, "The party jams and bedroom ballads may bubble and boil with retro grooves borrowed from Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, the Stylistics
The Stylistics
The Stylistics are a soul music vocal group, and were one of the best-known Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. They formed in 1968, and were composed of lead Russell Thompkins, Jr., Herbie Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads, graced by the...
and Al Green
Al Green
Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
, but the Bay Area trio's creamy vocals, top-notch band and live-wire energy make its music as vital and infectious as any jeep beats currently on the charts."
Michael A. Gonzales of Vibe commended the group for "us[ing] their elders as sketches for their personalized, complete sound paintings," writing that "Like a blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
flick soundtrack, House of Music glows a vision of blackness
African American culture
African-American culture, also known as black culture, in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in...
that is superbad, mad smooth, and crazy sexy." Gonzales described it as "a wonderland of harmonic delights, softcore jollies, and slow-jam
Slow jam
A slow jam an umbrella term for music with R&B and Soul influences. Slow jams are commonly R&B ballads or down tempo songs. The term is most commonly reserved for soft-sounding songs with heavily emotional or romantic lyrical content. This definition has led to intense debate over whether...
fever floating on the tip of Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
's arrow" and wrote that it "shows the group exploring the sensuality of black pop without sounding like boulevard bullies stalking their objects of desire." Drum gave it five out of five stars and stated, "Appropriately called House of Music, the album is a showcase of the group's genius at composition, vocals and playing live instruments - there's no detectable computerisation in the music." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album an A rating, indicating "a record that rarely flags for more than two or three tracks." He called "Thinking of You" a "hilariously gutsy Al Green hommage that knows the great man's every moue and off-beat" and elaborated on the group's musical "virtuosity" with the album, stating:
Retrospect
Christgau later wrote that "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." In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Leo Stanley gave the album four out of five stars and complimented Tony! Toni! Toné!'s "traditional soul and R&B values of songwriting," writing that they "successfully accomplish their fusion of the traditional and contemporary [...] within the framework of memorable, catchy songs." Stanely noted their influence on neo soulNeo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...
artists such as Tony Rich and Maxwell
Maxwell (musician)
Maxwell , is an American R&B, funk and neo soul musician. He played an important role in the development of the soul sub-genre, neo-soul.-Early life:...
at the time and concluded that "House of Music continues the Tonies' tradition of excellence and demonstrates that the group is getting stronger and better all the time." Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
's Scott Wilson praised the group's "craft" as "razor sharp by this record, and their crossover ability amazing as they infuse so many different elements into their music." Chicago Reader writer Michaelangelo Matos viewed that the album showcased Saadiq's and Wiggins' respective songwriting, stating "the contrast between Saadiq's and Wiggins's styles had grown so pronounced that the tension only enhanced what was already the group's best batch of songs."
Rashod Ollison of The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot is a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, southeastern Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The flagship property of Landmark Media Enterprises, The Pilot is Virginia's largest daily...
called the album "a flawless gem" and stated, "Their amalgamation of traditional and contemporary styles coalesced beautifully. Their influences [...] are apparent throughout. But the Tonys never come off as imitators. Their winking sense of humor and passion for tradition flow in well-structured songs, glimmering with smart modern touches. The melodies are sturdy and memorable, qualties rarely found in modern R&B." In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), music journalist Fred Schruers stated, "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 [...] Though the 70-minute disc doesn't deliver hooks from start to finish, the mood and groove never falter, standing with the best product ever put together by Gamble and Huff."
Track listing
Musicians
- Greg Adams – trumpet
- Spanky Alford – guitar
- George Archie – musician
- Johnny Bamont – saxophone
- Sue Ann Carwell – background vocals
- Tommy Dradford – 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
- 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
- DJ Quik – producer, triangle
- Timothy Christian Riley – acoustic piano, clarinet, drums, electric pianos, Hammond B-3 organ, percussion, producer
- Tracy Riley – production coordination
- Raphael Saadiq – bass, guitar, keyboards, producer, vocals
- 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
- D'wayne Wiggins – guitar, producer, vocals
- Terri Wong – assistant engineer
- Brian Young – assistant engineer
Album
| Chart (1996) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
32 |
| US Billboard Top R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
10 |
Singles
| Song | Chart (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Let's Get Down" | New Zealand Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
8 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
33 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | 30 | |
| US Billboard Hot R&B Airplay Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart is the airplay component chart of the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. It is not the R&B subset of The Hot 100 Airplay, but rather a separate panel of R&B stations in urban markets used for the R&B/Hip-Hop chart... |
4 | |
| "Thinking of You" | New Zealand Singles Chart | 36 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 22 | |
| US Billboard Hot R&B Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
5 | |
External links
- House of Music at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...