Lift Your Spirit
| Aloe Blacc
Lift Your Spirit
Lift Your Spirit is the third studio album by American soul singer Aloe Blacc. The album was released on October 25, 2013, through Interscope Records, the album was released in the United States on March 11, 2014 and April 7, 2014 in the United Kingdom. The album has charted in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The album includes production and co-songwriting from DJ Khalil, Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Theron Feemster and Rock Mafia. Strings for the entire album were arranged and recorded by Daniel "Danny Keyz" Tannenbaum. The album received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015. - Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
Southern California soulman Aloe Blacc, who sang lead on Avicii‘s 2013 smash “Wake Me Up,” will probably be enjoying some nice royalty checks for years to come – but while every college student in the hemisphere surely recognizes his voice, not nearly as many fans know his name. Blacc’s major-label debut tries to change that with a set of hooky soul-pop tunes layered with folk-tinged acoustic elements. Highlights like the boisterous “Can You Do This” and an EDM-free mix of “Wake Me Up” (just in case anyone forgot he’s that guy) are plenty radio-friendly, but the songs never quite add up to a cohesive album. At least he’s still got that smoky vibrato.
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Hip Hop DX
Lift Your Spirit, also his Interscope debut, follows 2010’s Good Things, where Blacc sang and wrote with warmth and elegance, as if he had studied Bill Withers extra closely. Now, Blacc comforts as he continues to find his own voice. When Blacc was still in Hip Hop duo Emanon, the then-rapper sounded as frustrated as Garnett appeared; in 2005’s The Waiting Room, his reasons why—actor rappers, lying politicians, his own mortality—pile up like dirty laundry. Now, Blacc’s a sly cynic. He sings “Chasing” with equal sweetness and grit as Sam Cooke would, a delivery that sweetens this ditty about being flat broke. “So keep your calm and carry on,” he sings in the ominous “Ticking Bomb,” his voice rounded and worn, as if haunted by the popular poster slogan’s World War II origins. And in his version of “Wake Me Up,” reconfigured from its country-meets-EDM roots into a jangly Folk rendition, Blacc sings with more force than its weary lyrics seem to warrant. It’s as if he’s slowly regaining the energy to fight back. If only its last few tracks were just as focused and compelling.Lift Your Spirit only suffers when it winds down, as it panders to Blacc’s booming audience. Conclusion “Eyes of a Child” lists nuggets of conventional wisdom, including a bumper sticker slogan often attributed to Gandhi, as if Blacc hopes to reach every Stones Throw devotee, Voice viewer and Ultra Music Festival goer. His strategy makes for a rare moment when the album feels impersonal.
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The Guardian
Blacc's third solo album sits firmly in poppy, ready-to-chart R&B territory. It's a valiant effort, but not particularly inspiring. The album brims over with perky optimism, with Blacc invoking listeners to "see through the eyes of a child" and "believe in love, the only thing we have that's true". Cynics, beware: Blacc's finger-snapping, radio-friendly mix of soul and folk may grate. Lift Your Spirit aims for feel-good heights, pushed into darker territory only on the sultry Red Velvet Seat and the steady build of Ticking Bomb. Blacc's gravelly, expressive voice sounds terrific throughout, his trills and melodies indebted to Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, but isn't enough to make the album sound particularly exciting.
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All Music
Lift Your Spirit doesn't attempt to capitalize on the success of the Avicii collaboration, unless the zero-percent EDM version of "Wake Me Up," placed third on the U.S. album, is factored. Just as Hawthorne's major-label debut presented his throwback sound with sanded surfaces, this set does have some contemporary sheen. Compared to Good Things, it sounds like its making was much more considered and laborious. That goes more for the material and productions than for Aloe's everyman voice, still redolent of a young and optimistic Bill Withers with an old soul. It remains as easy on the ears as a worn pair of slippers on the feet. Aloe co-produced all but three of the songs, with veteran DJ Khalil involved with all but two of them. Several cuts -- dance party numbers "Can You Do This" and "Chasing," the hat-on-heart ballad "Red Velvet Seat," and the exultant, Elton John-referencing "The Man," boosted by a gospel choir -- are spiffier spins on Aloe's earlier soul stylings. More surprising, "Here Today" trails "Wake Me Up" with more folky platitudes, this time with a stadium "all together now" chorus, while "The Hand Is Quicker" has a blues edge. One cut made with Pharrell Williams, "Love Is the Answer," takes no time to slip into an easy disco-funk groove and fits into the album with its sunny outlook and elegant horns and strings. The lone song with a sentiment that can't be summarized by the album's title, "Ticking Bomb" ("The whole world's sitting on a ticking bomb, so keep your calm and carry on"), doesn't seem right within the sequence but is a career highlight. The album's content is otherwise reflected in the title. It could use more of that grit heard in the earlier releases.
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The Hoya
With “Lift Your Spirit” as its title, Aloe Blacc’s new album could not be clearer about its intentions. The soul and rhythm and blues singer returns with his third studio album, but most mainstream listeners will recognize Blacc from Avicii’s hit “Wake Me Up,” for which Blacc provided vocals. Never quite managing to become the uplifting record it intends to be, “Lift Your Spirit”too often takes the easy route in sounding inspirational, but Blacc’s velvety smooth voice and old-fashioned flair almost make up for the album’s flaws.
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Pop Matters
Lift Your Spirit is an album that's going to have a lot of appeal with an audience that's looking for catchy songs that would fit right in on any Top-40 radio station. Aloe Blacc blends neo-soul and pop, and he certainly succeeds at making it approachable to fans of any genre. However, those fans who are anticipating a more traditional soul album may be let down to know that Lift Your Spirit leans more heavily on the contemporary side of things. The album doesn't have a lot of replay value, and the songwriting is hit-or-miss, but Aloe Blacc is able to tap into a market that isn't seeing a lot of action right now. If you like what you've heard of Aloe Blacc, even if you didn't know it was him, Lift Your Spirit would be a good starting point to dive deeper into his music.
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brent music reviews
Ultimately, Lift Your Spirit does just that – it makes you feel happy. There are no deal breaking moments to be found, with consistency characterizing the album overall. Calling Lift Your Spirit an innovative affair would be an overstatement, but praising it for its solidness wouldn’t be in the least. Vocally, Aloe Blacc is a balanced singer who knows when to pull back and when to flash, which helps to make Lift Your Spirit so appealing throughout. It is the sensible R&B album that is ‘pop’ enough to crossover – just look at “The Man” for proof of that.
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The Irish Times
We can safely conclude that Nathaniel “Aloe Blacc” Hawkins will not be in need of his old day job any time soon. Indeed, losing his gig as a business strategist at Ernst & Young propelled him onto the retro-soul fast-track. I Need A Dollar was a swinging anthem for this latest bout of hard times; Wake Me Up , in collaboration with Avicii (found here without the EDM baggage), was another moneymaker. On Lift Your Spirit, Blacc goes back to the light, sweet touch of 1970s soul and acoustic folk. There has always been a Bill Withers timbre to Blacc’s tone, and Here Today puts the focus very much on that vocal connection. Love Is the Answer is a Pharrell-touched groove aimed at the freaky pop-funk of Stevie Wonder, while Red Velvet Seat comes with an infectious, radio-made hook. All in all, an impressive display from the Southern Californian soulman.
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York Vision
It comes as no surprise that Blacc’s third LP has been co-produced by the happy man himself (Pharell Williams) and DJ Khalil. The album does what it says on the tin, Aloe treats us to eleven songs that transport the listener back to a time when music fed the soul, that’s probably why it was called “Soul”. With Aloe previously featuring on a certain top ten track called “Wake Me Up”, produced by the Swedish connoisseur “Avici”. I think you may have heard of it? Many first time Listeners probably have the misconception that Aloe has a similar dance, in the club style to his previous hit. Well the truth is you would be very wrong indeed; instead Aloe has created an album that includes a concoction of R & B, Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk and Folk.
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Vivascene
Not quite the killer album Aloe Blacc surely has in him, nevertheless Lift Your Spirit will do just that, yet falls short of expectations.
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Newsday
Unfortunately, “Lift Your Spirit” also features clunkers that are so bad they’re actually shocking. “Here Today” is so lazy it’s hard to believe he ever played it in public, much less included it on an album, with its chorus of “We’re here today (hey!) gone tomorrow! Lead the way, never follow!” sung blandly over a vague pop backdrop. Even his personal thanks-giving song, “Owe It All,” sounds cobbled together and unbelievable, opening with the immortal question, “Where would I be without the pillow on my bed?” Blacc has plenty of potential, but he maddeningly wastes a lot of it on “Lift Your Spirit."
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Renowned for Sound
ift Your Spirit is the next logical step for someone like Aloe Blacc: He had a lot of buzz surrounding him a few years back and took the time to make a record aimed at the top of the charts. While a goal like this will no doubt polish out a lot of the charming immediacy that makes “soul music” what it is, Blacc has managed to come up with an album that is both artistically fulfilling and poised to make a lot of people a lot of money.
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