Loading AI tools
2016 studio album by Gregory Porter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Take Me to the Alley is the fourth studio album by Gregory Porter, released on May 6, 2016, through Blue Note Records. It earned Porter a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.[13]
Take Me to the Alley | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 6, 2016 | |||
Recorded | September 28 – October 1, 2015 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 51:18 | |||
Label | Blue Note | |||
Producer |
| |||
Gregory Porter chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Take Me to the Alley | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.6/10[1] |
Metacritic | 81/100[2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [3] |
AllMusic | [4] |
The Telegraph | [5] |
Exeposé | [6] |
The Guardian | [7] |
Irish Examiner | 4/5[8] |
The Irish Times | [9] |
The National | [10] |
Pitchfork | 6.7/10[11] |
PopMatters | 9/10[12] |
The album was recorded in Hollywood and New York City between September and October 2015.[14] Porter worked alongside producer Kamau Kenyatta, with whom he first worked in the mid-1990s when he was a student at San Diego State University. Porter observed: "Kamau has been most instrumental in taking what I have and refining it... he's been great at offering encouragement to what I already have artistically."[15]
Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said:
... for all its easiness on the ear, – and there are moments when listening Take Me to the Alley feels like being mugged by a syrup sponge pudding – there’s something weirdly uncompromising about Porter’s music. He doesn’t bother with glossy production: Take Me to the Alley sounds fantastic, but that’s down to the warm spontaneity of an album that seems to have been recorded in six days. Nor does he dabble in radio-friendly pop covers – no scat-singing interpreter of the Coldplay songbook he. His own compositions proudly display his gospel roots – not the first genre you’d think of flaunting were you desperate for mainstream success. The title track offers up a parable about the second coming of Christ, its sternness at odds with the pacific piano playing and Alicia Olatuja's pillowy backing vocals; "In Heaven" undercuts the small hours loveliness of its muted trumpet with a lyric by Porter's cousin about death and redemption.[16]
All songs written by Gregory Porter, except where noted.[17] Arrangements by Porter, Chip Crawford and Kamau Kenyatta, horns arranged by Kenyatta and Keyon Harrold.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Holding On" (Gregory Porter, James John Napier, Guy William Lawrence and Howard John Lawrence) | 5:01 |
2. | "Don't Lose Your Steam" | 3:17 |
3. | "Take Me to the Alley" | 5:16 |
4. | "Day Dream" (Gregory Porter and Craig Dawson) | 3:51 |
5. | "Consequence of Love" | 3:20 |
6. | "In Fashion" | 4:34 |
7. | "More Than a Woman" | 3:31 |
8. | "In Heaven" (Darlene Andrews) | 4:18 |
9. | "Insanity" | 5:37 |
10. | "Don't Be a Fool" | 4:31 |
11. | "Fan the Flames" | 4:12 |
12. | "French African Queen" | 3:44 |
Total length: | 51:18 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
13. | "Holding On" (featuring Kem) | 4.16 |
14. | "Insanity" (featuring Lalah Hathaway) | 5.03 |
15. | "Don't Lose Your Steam" (Fred Falke remix) | 3:15 |
Total length: | 63:51 |
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.