โ€œJUST RAW, ALWAYS REALLY RAW.โ€

Four key records that influenced Sound & Color

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DAVID AXELROD
Songs Of Innocence
CAPITOL 1968
Axelrodโ€™s sumptuous orchestral funk is not an immediately obvious influence on Sound & Color, but Brittany Howardโ€™s focus on the likes of โ€œHoly Thursdayโ€ tends to be beyond the extravagant strings. โ€œThe bass tone is so exciting, the drum tone,โ€ she says. โ€œAnd the guitar tones are always amazing,โ€ adds Heath Fogg. โ€œJust raw, always really raw.โ€

CURTIS MAYFIELD
Curtis
CURTOM 1970
Howard appropriates Mayfieldโ€™s lissom falsetto for โ€œGuess Whoโ€, and has been studying everything from early Impressions sides to the Superfly soundtrack: โ€œSome of the material can be really dark and far-out. Whilst I was writing songs I thought I wanted to do that, but then I went elsewhere. You can be inspired by something and take it somewhere completely different.โ€

FUNKADELIC
Maggot Brain
WESTBOUND 1971
โ€œI like Funkadelic because they blurred the lines of genre, a funk band with shredding, weird, fuzzed guitar solos that are super spaced-out. A good groove, and laser beam keyboards. It makes me wanna dance and it also makes me think.โ€

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ERYKAH BADU
New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh)
MOTOWN 2010
Disorienting nu-soul opus thatโ€™s a clear precursor of liquid Sound & Color songs like โ€œOver My Headโ€. โ€œLove Badu,โ€ says Howard. โ€œIโ€™ve been listening to Badu for years. If you look at my record stack, sheโ€™s like Number Two.โ€ A quick glance at her record stack suggests, at least today, Number One is Miles Davis.