With Prince as executive producer and featuring artists like Maceo Parker and Trombone Shorty, Andy Allo’s new album, Superconductor, immediately topped Amazon’s Soul and R&B charts following its release last month. Noise11 had a listen to see what all the fuss was about.
Andy Allo - Superconductor
Upbeat and funky, the title track kicks off this album with a synth-heavy, lyrically intricate tale of love between energetic and musical “superconductors”. Co-written by Prince and Andy, this would no doubt lend itself perfectly to dance mixes (which we’ll hopefully see in the new year), blending the full funk sound of a room full of top-notch musicians with modern studio effects. Dedicated Prince fans will recognise the name Michael Bland, who plays drums on this track.
Keeping the funk rolling, ‘People Pleaser’ is the first single off the album, with Andy at the helm, backed by the full force of the NPG, the Hornheadz, Maceo Parker, Trombone Shorty and no doubt Prince as well (he’s not credited as such, but this rarely stops him). Anyone who saw Andy debut this song on stage with Prince during the Montreal Jazz Festival in June 2011 will remember it sounding considerably different back then – this is probably the best insight we’ve got into how Prince, as executive producer, has worked with Andy to super-size some of her songs into funky jams like this one with a huge, sharp, almost big band-type sound.
‘Long Gone’ is a much gentler, acoustic track that suits Andy’s voice beautifully. It’s interesting that this song is another one that’s co-written by Prince, yet it has all the hallmarks of Andy’s earlier work. Considering that it follows on from ‘People Pleaser’, that she wrote, but which sounds for all the world like a Prince track, it seems that the creative lines between these two artists have been completely and deliberately blurred all over the album.
The last of the tracks co-written by Prince (if you believe the credits), the rich sounds of ‘The Calm’ are a good reminder of why great albums are best enjoyed through headphones. Infused with elements of jazz and R&B, this track has plenty of layers of instruments and effects, backing an insightful message in amongst Andy’s smooth-sounding vocals.
Andy recently announced that the fifth track, ‘Yellow Gold’ will be the next music video, suggesting perhaps that it will also be the second single. This one is well and truly into the R&B realm and is one of the best examples of where Andy is taking the sound she introduced on her first album, Unfresh. Another lively track, peppered with horns and synths and a seriously funky bass, this one has emerged as an early favourite amongst fans.
‘Nothing More’ is another good example of these two artists seemingly merging, unless you take the more cynical viewpoint that Prince has written a lot more than he takes credit for in the liner notes. There are obvious comparisons between this song and a couple of Prince songs, particularly ‘The Love We Make’, a beautiful ballad from his 1996 album, Emancipation. Last year, at the North Sea Jazz Festival, they were sung together, further highlighting the similarities. Not that anyone’s complaining, of course – the end result is simply that this is another moving, gently profound song that’s a delight to listen to.
Then we reach my personal favourite song on the album, ‘If I Was King’. The aforementioned cynical side of me struggles to not make assumptions about the origins of this track, given that the entire song is written very obviously from the male perspective, such as the line, “if I was a king, I’d make her a ring from every treasure my army could bring.” In the end it doesn’t really matter though – it’s just a fun, funky track that re-introduces Maceo and Trombone Shorty and brings the party to this album. Andy is clearly going to new places vocally and the jury seems to still be out on whether or not this is an exciting new exploration or too much of a stretch from the smooth acoustic and R&B sounds that she can absolutely nail, but the more I listen, the more this side of her grows on me. Definitely worth a few spins.
Speaking of smooth acoustic sounds, ‘Story of You & I’ takes us straight back there. Similar to ‘Long Gone’, this is just a lovely treat for your ears, being predominently vocals, beautifully harmonised, and accompanied with acoustic guitars.
The album finishes conceptually somewhere close to where it began, with ‘When Stars Collide’ speaking again of energetic fusions, but the mood of this track is quite different. Funky, but smooth and jazzy in parts, bass and drums set the scene while voice and keys tell the story. “Love travelling at the speed of light,” certainly seems to be the theme of the album. This is the sort of track I could imagine being a long jam on stage, particularly if Prince gets hold of the bass, as he so often does.
A lot of Prince fans are likely to have bought Superconductor soley because he is the executive producer. His protégés have always been plagued with the issue of ‘borrowed fans’, meaning that if people are buying an album because Prince has produced it, there’s a high likelihood that they are going to want to hear Prince singing on it as well and may be disappointed when they discover that he doesn’t. Sadly, some may not give this album the attention it deserves as a result.
Regardless, Andy has now established her own fan base and will no doubt keep building her army of Superconductors around the world as more people choose to invest some energy into listening to this real music, by real musicians – something that is fast becoming a precious commodity, at least in the commercial music world.
Details of how to grab a copy of Superconductor can be found on Andy’s website or else you can go straight to iTunes for a digital copy or to Amazon for a physical CD.
Last week, she released the audio for ‘Long Gone’ via her YouTube channel. Check it out below.
You can also see more of Ms. Allo in Prince’s latest music video, Rock & Roll Love Affair.
