The Revival - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

A new jack swing album, The Revival features R&B music with elements from hip hop, funk, jazz, and pop styles. Musically and lyrically, it fuses older soul influences and contemporary hip hop attitudes, along with the latter genre's use of samples and digital rhythm tracks. Funk songs such as "The Blues", "Oakland Stroke", "Let's Have a Good Time", and "Feels Good" incorporate digital production technology. Janine McAdams of Spin finds most of the songs to be "embellished with an allusion, an imitation or an out-and-out sample", and writes that the group draws on "various musical influences—Parliament, Duke Ellington, Pointer Sisters, James Brown, among others." "Let's Have a Good Time" samples the Pointer Sisters' 1973 song "Yes We Can Can", and "Oakland Stroke", a paean to the group's hometown, has "Jungle Boogie"-like horn riffs. The "sardonic" song veers stylistically from hip hop to swing, incorporating a 1940s jazz break.

According to McAdams, Tony! Toni! Toné!'s songwriting on the album eschews "social commentary or political posturing" for "the preservation of R&B's signature, the perpetuation of the soul tradition, and—on the lighter side—the glorification of barbeque, the boogaloo and the booty on a Saturday night." Described by the group as "Baptist shout music that makes you wanna dance", "Feels Good" incorporates a popular sample from James Brown's 1970 song "Funky Drummer" and gospel musical themes. "Don't Talk About Me" is a warning to a mouthy woman, while "The Blues" features the narrator's spiteful complaints about an ungrateful girlfriend. The latter song features aggressive bass, a funky break, doo-wop verses, a blues riff that the group's guitarist D'wayne Wiggins learned from his father, and ideas from pianist Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts television specials.

The album's songs also feature offbeat sounds, improvisational elements, and conversational vocals derived from rap. The Revival begins with a directive from a grave voice: "Play this record as frequently as possible, Then, as it becomes easier for you, play the record once a day, or as needed." The album also features dialogue between an old lady who asks the group whether it will be like their last album, on which she was also featured; they respond to her question "No, ma'am". "All the Way" has a scrambling beat, whistle sounds, and the rhythmic call and response "What are we, what are we, what are we? ... Just a bunch of brothers having a party". The end of "Feels Good" features witty jazz keyboard playing behind a lively voice saying "it feels good ... in the hands, feet, bones, heart, and soul". Ed Hogan of Allmusic writes that "the last part sounds like a Sunday morning testimonial."

After its first five songs, The Revival settles into a calmer, more conventional style, with ballads that are more relaxed and low-key. "It Never Rains (In Southern California)" was titled after an oft-repeated phrase from one of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s attorneys, who used it in response to the group wearing heavy coats after returning from visits on the East Coast. Group drummer Timothy Christian played most of the song's instruments, and bassist Raphael Wiggins wrote its lyrics about a man longing for a woman who was in southern California. The ballads are followed by "Those Were the Days", which features jouncing banjo, trumpet, and wistful lyrics reminiscing about simpler times "when a dollar was worth a dollar, and you didn't have to carry a gun when you left your house."