R. Kelly, Double Up Full Album Zip
Fanny Lococo
R. is the third solo album by American singer R. Kelly, released as a double album on November 10, 1998, by Jive Records. It marked the first time Kelly worked with other producers as opposed to producing the entire album himself. Its cover artwork uses the same image of Kelly from his 1993 debut 12 Play, only in silhouette form against a red and black background.
Upon its release, R. went to number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number two on the US Billboard 200, selling over 612,000 copies in its first week of sales.[11] It spawned Kelly's second number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit "I'm Your Angel", as well as the number-one Top R&B hit "I Believe I Can Fly", which had been released two years earlier on the Space Jam soundtrack. R. is currently Kelly's best-selling release to date, having sold over eight million copies in the United States and over 12.4 million copies worldwide.
Located in Alexandria, Va., the Birchmere is known for its outstanding acoustics and seats in the 500-seat main hall that allow you to get close to the artists and the stage. It is a terrific place to sit and listen to music.
In 2019, Reckless Kelly released Bulletproof Live, in which they performed their 2008 album in its entirety for a faithful Idaho audience. Earlier this month, they released The 9/11 Demos, 16 songs recorded in between trips to the television to watch coverage of the attack on the Twin Towers. In between, the group released a double album American Jackpot/American Girls, its first set of originals in four years.
Family ties obviously are important to Reckless Kelly. And for Tykor and the Train Robbers, the family ties were evident both in the energy and enthusiasm they brought to their songs as wel. Audiences like the one Friday are the beneficiaries.
'Comedy' is a sprawling double album originally issued in 1991. Running just under an hour - the album ushers in a decidedly more personal tone creeping in under the anecdotal door, as themes of romance, regret, and adulthood stem from the 18 tracks (+ hidden track) laid out here. Each song is either about a certain situation or a past event, usually involving Kelly as the protagonist. Whether they're fiction or not - his lyrical storytelling whisks the us away and drops us dead centre into the middle of his spiels.
Examples of Kelly's best work on this album include "I Can't Believe We Were Married," a tune about a marriage that fell apart where both parties were relieved, and "Sydney from a 747," centered around the theme of spontaneity and how nice it would be to just pick up and leave. The jewel in the crown is of course "From Little Things Big Things Grow". The song was co-written by Kelly and Kev Carmody and is based on the story of The Gurindji Strike and Vincent Lingiari as part of the Indigenous Australian struggle for land rights and reconciliation.
It can be the sound of a genius artist hitting their stride (Prince's Sign O' The Times, Wilco's Being There, Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness), as much as an excuse for a group to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks (The Beatles' The Beatles (The White Album)) or try to appease competing egos of its members fighting for equal space (Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below).
With the news that Melbourne shredders Beaches have joined the double album club with their about-to-be-released new record Second Of Spring (it's 17 songs over 75 minutes), here's five more homemade epics that push the time and space barrier.
Frontman Jamie Hutchings reached his opus with the squally rockers' final record, a 20-track collection with obvious nods to the longest albums by Neil Young and Sonic Youth. Heck, he even namechecked them in the liner notes.
Paul Kelly's commercial breakthrough came with new backing band The Coloured Girls, who made their debut on 1986's epic Gossip. Re-recording four cuts off his previous solo album Post helped to pad its 24-song tracklist, but it was the new songs that shone brightest.
Their first double album was simply divided into two halves, called Black and White and clocking in at 63 and 51 minutes respectively. Samples drift in and out, and drummer Tony Buck lets the mood ebb and flow for an eternity.
Loretta Lynn, "Full Circle" (Legacy Recordings). Twelve years after Jack White helped reintroduce the country-music legend with "Van Lear Rose," the 83-year-old Lynn returns. Her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and June Carter Cash's son John Carter Cash serve as co-producers on the album, with Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson as guests. The music selection offers traditional numbers, reinterpreted hits and more culled from over 100 recorded songs.
Esperanza Spalding, "Emily's D+Evolution" (Concord). Much-acclaimed bassist and singer with myriad jazz chops turns those talents and tendencies toward a "personality," or something, named Emily and rock music as twisty and odd as anything by Primus.
Violent Femmes, "We Can Do Anything" (PIAS America). On their first true album since 2000's "Freak Magnet," the Milwaukee-born Femmes, whose acoustic-kinked idiosyncrasy has soundtracked teenage and post-teenage confusion for over three decades, offer 10 wound-up songs wisely kept to a 31-minute total running time.
Ben Abraham, "Sirens" (Secretly Canadian). After bringing his singer-songwriter ardor to the U.S. for the first time last year, Australian son of Indonesian folk-pop stars makes his full-length recorded introduction with a little help from Sara Bareilles.
Bestial Mouths, "Heartless" (Cleopatra). An aggressively negative electronica-and-metal band from L.A. doesn't soften its approach in the slightest, and resembles the mirror-universe hybrid of Nine Inch Nails and Savages, on its latest LP.
Big Ups, "Before a Million Universes" (Exploding in Sound). One of the purer, which is to say most old-school and ragged, punk-rock bands in Brooklyn uses a line from Walt Whitman as the title of, and as philosophical underpinning for, its second album.
Black Peaches, "Get Down You Dirty Rascals" (1965 Records). Hot Chip and Scritti Politti alumnus Rob Smoughton leads a new six-piece group that draws Southern boogie and swampy soul onto the rock-disco floor.
Byrne and Kelly, "Echoes" (Byrne and Kelly). Two of the main singers in the Celtic Thunder show put together nine new songs and one fan favorite in their second collection as an acoustic-folk duo with, obviously, an Irish perspective.
Steven Curtis Chapman, "Worship and Believe" (Reunion/Chapman). The most-awarded artist in gospel music has long considered his faith "woven into his music," but this is the Nashville-based singer and songwriter's very first direct "worship" album.
City of the Sun, "To the Sun and All the Cities In Between" (Chesky). A trio whose equipment includes two guitars, bells and box can be seen in its native NYC playing streets or theaters and now can be heard on another disc of gypsy-jazz, post-rock instrumentals.
The Coral, "Distance Inbetween" (Ignition). From the northwestern-England area of Wirran Peninsula, the Coral returns after a half-decade hiatus with a largely live-recorded, mostly one-take album of pop-psych rock music.
Dead Stars, "Bright Colors" (Weird Tree). On its newest slab, Brooklyn indie-rock trio whose members pretty much look as pasty and nerdy as expected locates a broader-appeal crunch and better basic tunes than Weezer has managed for years.
Hacktivist, "Outside the Box" (UNFD/Rise). Milton Keynes, England quintet that does a pretty good accented version of the much-maligned rap-metal subgenre finally follows its 2012 self-titled EP with a seething and screaming full-length.
Brett Harris, "Up in the Air" (Hit the Deck Recordings). Durham, North Carolina resident has played in the touring version of the dB's and has a not-dissimilar poppy, roots-rock focus on his own second solo album.
John Helix, "Turn Out, Turn Off, Disconnect" (John Helix). The late Elliott Smith has been almost as much of a touchstone for downbeat singer-songwriters as Nick Drake, and Helix adds his San Diego attitude to Smith-styled material on his third long-player.
Heron Oblivion, "Heron Oblivion" (Sub Pop). Although members of Comets on Fire and other indie groups are in Heron Oblivion, the undisputed leader is Meg Baird, whose smart drumming and casually powerful voice add more psych-rock heft to the band's first LP.
High Waisted, "On Ludlow" (Eat Trash Be Free). Neither uber-hip nor deliberately unhip, the debut full-length from this NYC band grooves on surf-rock romanticism and floats adoringly on frontwoman Jessica Louise Dye's knowingly effervescent vocals.
Tim Hockenberry, "Tim Hockenberry" (Poignant). A San Francisco-area finalist on "America's Got Talent" during its 2012 season has been singing cover versions of hits for 20 years but at last releases an introductory album of his own music.
The Knocks, "55" (Big Beat/Neon Gold). Carly Rae Jepsen, Walk the Moon, Wyclef Jean and Cam'ron are among the collaborators and/or guests lending their sundry skills to the first full-length from an EDM duo that until now has been a singles, EPs and remixes releaser.
Ray LaMontagne, "Ouroboros" (RCA). My Morning Jacket's Jim James and LaMontagne co-produce the latter's sixth studio album, meant to be a kind of folk-rock odyssey that increases in intensity as it moves from the most internal to the most external of locations.
Lpsley, "Long Way Home" (XL Recordings). British singer Holly Lapsley Fletcher buttresses the rep gained from her 2015 EP "Understudy" with a debut LP that could put the 19-year-old near other artistically minded and pop-savvy female artistes like Lorde.
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