First time Cody Chestnut entered my life was through his The Headphone Masterpiece. The sound of that album was very much a patchwork quilt of rock,funk and hip-hop though a reverrbed and heavily phased filter. Wasn’t a bad idea but I’d basically heard something similar to this before-from D’Angelo. Some of the songwriting ideas were not well developed and there was a lack of essential musical focus. All the same,Cody’s talent was definitely there. Than he disappeared almost as fast as he appeared. And I thought he would be a musical footnote whose full potential would not be fully realized. Than one day I was looking through the soul section of my local record store and there it was,a brand new release from someone who surprised me. They had a listening station there where I could here snippets enough for me to know I’d like it. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Not only has Cody Chestnut finally realized his creative potential but released what I view as his most focused and direct album yet.
From the churning rhythm guitars and drums at the beginning,it’s clear the focus here is going to be funk. And that is “people music” from the 70’s funk era all the way: melodic,full of advanced instrumental and vocal harmonic ideas. Especially impressive is “I’ve Been Life”,where using spoken word dialog to introduce the name of African countries and colonies to illustrate the rootedness of his life. “What Kind Of Cool (Will We Think Of Next)” happily addresses who media-centric people have become in their personal habits in a witty rather than angst-y fashion. On “That’s Still Mama” he’s musing on his family very much “I Wish” era Stevie Wonder style. After this the album takes on more of an uptown soul flavor with a shuffling rhythm and horns on “Love Is More Than A Four Letter Word” and “Everybody’s Brother”,where Cody talks of being redeemed from a life of manipulation and drug use through religion in his case. Of course he does show from trepidation that he might fall off that wagon in “Don’t Wanna Go The Other Way” as well. “Chips Down (In No Landfill” and “Where Is All The Money Going” illustrating modern economic hardships with some Marvin Gaye-like multi tracked falsetto vocals.
Of course the album ends in a similar musical place to where it begins-with the wah wah powered funk of “Scroll Call”,again finding him looking to the African continent for inspiration. I’ve heard a good majority of the retro soul/funk that’s been coming out. But I have to say I’ve seldom heard an album of that genre as well produced,well written and above all well conceptualized as this in the past decade or so. Cody Chestnut is no longer trying to keep up with the Jones’s of indie rock or contemporary hip-hop. He was at last able to find the steady musical direction here that has defined the creative direction of other people pursuing similarly individual paths such as Janelle Monae’. Not only is he more than adept at the most advanced level of funk and soul songwriting and production,but also exploring Afrocentrism on a personal,meaningful and positive level. This album could actually be part of a new revolutionary funk era rebirth. One that wouldn’t be based in rock or hip-hop cliches. But one that would expand on the past to embrace Afro-futurism,if Cody handles himself in a creatively reasonable manner from here on.
Originally Posted On December 16th,2014
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