2008: heard her 2 year old "Too Little, Too Late" for the first time; was transfixed; learned it was written by Billy Steinberg (who I learned yesterday wrote Demi Lovato's striking "Giver your Heart a Break"). Checked out "Leave (get out)" upon which "TL, TL" seems to improve, in that she could convey the sentiment a lot better as a 15-16 year old. She grew up in parts of New England that are not known (at least by me) for producing gifted R&B/pop singers.
Couldn't find anything else under her name that I much dug for awhile. But I half-watched a shitty Robin Williams movie one night, and there she was! She appeared in Keri Hilson's video for "The Way You love Me" = R&B cred move.
She's been preparing a new album for some four years, probly riding out one cycle after another…"in the dark" from her mixtape, didn't move me…and she again re-tooled "Leave/TL, TL" as the Kelly Clarkson manqué "disaster" last year…
I see that many folks via "Rolling Pop" and "Rolling R&B" threads took note of her take on "Marvin's Room," which is pretty fucking great. I also see that her collaborator has not only made a lotta tunes with his pal Drake, but a shit-ton of r&b from the past three or so years that I adore.
So this brings us to "Demonstrate," again with Shebib. was startled to learn that a song on R&B radio that I liked as much as Melanie Fiona's "4 am" and Kirko Bangz's sinister "drank in my cup" was not Brandy, but Jojo's new shit. good gawd, what a beguiling melody… I dig the fuck out of the auto-tuned enabled vocal run "baby there's a lot freaky shit…"; doing as Drake does is a pretty solid foundation for me liking a song these days, much less making an album along those lines, which is evidently what she gonna do. Additionally, I've read folks saying that this tune is derived from Kelly Rowland's "Motivation," which I don't get…
So…am I off base in thinking that there's an intelligence to what this gal does, distinct from, oh I dunno, Selena Gomez (no knock on her: "I love you like a love song" is so so nasty). I guess the one-time child star grows up paradigm is a venerable one…but there's something about her I can't put my finger on…mebbe she's just rilly good and gifted or some shit…
thread I started four years ago which has seen some recent activity : the thread regarding JoJo's "Too Little Too Late"
― veronica moser, Friday, 31 August 2012 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
But I half-watched a shitty Robin Williams movie one night, and there she was!
Good ol' RV, I was just randomly thinking about that today due to the Robin Williams returns to TV news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UvBscCukg4
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 31 August 2012 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
um yeah, that's a pretty great one.
curious about that autotune-enabled vocal run, which is teased by the guitar figure that opens the song and then doubled by that guitar every time it happens: could any current female singer cover that range without autotune?
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 31 August 2012 19:53 (eleven years ago) link
i have adored in the dark, marvin's room and demonstrate; i agree that there is something very special about JoJo as she is manifested on these tracks. something intelligent, real, and passionate. v unique in my mind.
― surm, Friday, 31 August 2012 19:58 (eleven years ago) link
also they're all about being fucked up, sexually
doesn't get much more truthful than that
― surm, Friday, 31 August 2012 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
she has always come across as much older than she actually is.
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 31 August 2012 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
Is there any reason to assume it's "autotune enabled"? That run only seems to cover about an octave and a half (correct me if wrong, I'm terrible at hearing intervals) and she reaches just as low and higher still at other parts of the song. Sounds like she's going from vocal fry (which she uses at a couple other points in the verses) to chest voice to head voice, four sixteenth notes in each register, during the run but reserves her falsetto for the chorus. It seems like something an unskilled singer would have problems with but shouldn't be an issue to a reasonably skilled singer. Where is DJP when he's needed?
At any rate, this song is tremendous and that's the best part.
― The Reverend, Friday, 31 August 2012 20:14 (eleven years ago) link
well it sounds like autotune for starters. but, yeah, it's not how many octaves she's spanning but rather how she's hitting all those low notes -- starting on G-sharp two octaves below middle C if me and my piano aren't mistaken -- so clearly and rapidly. that's the low end of the baritone range.
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 31 August 2012 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
I'm a baritone and I can sing it a full octave lower, so presumably that's right around the bottom of an alto range. I'm not sure what "sounds like autotune" means if there aren't any obvious artifacts.
― The Reverend, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:24 (eleven years ago) link
And that note is G# right below middle C, isn't it?
― The Reverend, Friday, 31 August 2012 22:34 (eleven years ago) link
well either way they do like to use effects on her voice, i think to render her a little harder and contrast the softer breaks in her vocals more dramatically
― surm, Saturday, 1 September 2012 01:56 (eleven years ago) link
i think a big part of her new slant is the binary btw toughness and vulnerability. there is something decidedly sad there.
― surm, Saturday, 1 September 2012 01:58 (eleven years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/jojoofficial/andre-v1
https://soundcloud.com/jojoofficial/we-get-by
^not quite "demonstrate", but dope
― these bitches is my sons and i make dad jokes (The Reverend), Monday, 3 December 2012 10:40 (eleven years ago) link
mixtape due on the 20th
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, 3 December 2012 11:22 (eleven years ago) link
http://popdust.com/2013/01/30/jojo-interview-agape-joni-mitchell/
great interview. no surprise that "marvin's room" was borne out of a terrible hangover
― lex pretend, Thursday, 31 January 2013 17:20 (eleven years ago) link
"Andre" is such a dope song
― Differ of Narcissus (The Reverend), Friday, 1 February 2013 02:51 (eleven years ago) link
love this:
I’ve seen every possible Joni Mitchell interview, from every decade of her career. I’m obsessed. The whole Court and Spark album really speaks to me. She doesn’t notice the affection of all these men, because she’s too busy being free, and she’s not focused on them, she kind of uses them as she wishes. She’s strong and powerful and vulnerable and messed up.
Would you ever do a cover album of Joni songs?
Yeah, but didn’t Herbie Hancock just do that?
[Embarrassed silence.]
It won best album!
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 1 February 2013 04:07 (eleven years ago) link
re: can she do those runs without autotune?
i think she's doing most of them here live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uapwFcg-kA
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 7 February 2013 07:45 (eleven years ago) link
she also does a pretty killer version of andre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed0apPz_CHE
and one of too little too late.
the label really needs to stop fucking around with her and let her put out an album
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 7 February 2013 07:46 (eleven years ago) link
xp that's pretty great and, um, I hereby withdraw my autotune question from near the beginning of the thread. (but there is some kind of effect that's messing with her timbre at the beginnng of that run in the studio version.)
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 7 February 2013 08:50 (eleven years ago) link
oh for sure there is. i just think it's an aesthetic decision and not a capability one
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 7 February 2013 08:51 (eleven years ago) link
as early as leave her shtick was little girl big range iirc
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 7 February 2013 08:52 (eleven years ago) link
woah, that video. i had no idea her range was so big
― monotony, Thursday, 7 February 2013 08:57 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-58oJy_Uq8
looking great in the "andre" video, albeit she seems to have uploaded it in the wrong aspect ratio
SUCH a good song though
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
"Take the Canyon" is my sleeper fave off this
― cunnilingus ah um (The Reverend), Friday, 29 March 2013 17:31 (ten years ago) link
rolling stone interview. once more, she seems like a really smart, on-it girl stuck in a fucked-up label situation
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-former-teen-star-jojo-aiming-for-elusive-third-album-20130417
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 18 April 2013 19:57 (ten years ago) link
umm not only did I start this thread, but I'm the interviewer of the piece above, and was VERY surprised that my pitch was accepted.
I knew that she and i would get along, but I wasn't sure what she would make of a 42-year old who professed great admiration towards her würks.
As to the autotune perplex discussed above, I did not include a passage about that, cuz, y'know, Rolling Stone is not gonna be invested in getting down in the R&B production weeds…However you guys are! So! Herewith!
Q: s the first note of the vocal scale/run that you do right before the chorus ("baby there's a lot of…) treated electronically?
A: I had to take a reeeeaaaal deep breath to get that note out. 40 made sure I sang it live, so I think the volume was just gained so we can hear the tone properly.
― veronica moser, Thursday, 18 April 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link
lol i was just wondering about you, because when i was searching for the jojo thread, i noticed that there were two, and despite the title of this, the other was also started by you! kudos on getting the pitch accepted, i haven't even tried because it seems like a hiding to nothing, but the few short interviews i've read with her lately do make me think she'd be great to talk to.
jojo superfans do tend to be all "no seriously this is one of the most technically gifted singers alive" and in lieu of hearing that sort of stuff myself i tend to believe them
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Thursday, 18 April 2013 20:26 (ten years ago) link
label situation: sorted
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-exclusive-jojo-deal-atlantic-records-20140114,0,3524459.story?track=rss
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 10:14 (ten years ago) link
this is really awesome news, I'm very happy for her
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 10:24 (ten years ago) link
:)
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 10:26 (ten years ago) link
whoop whoop
― Emined - FAP God (The Reverend), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 10:43 (ten years ago) link
i root for her more than most 'onetime stars turned internet cause celebre' type cases, so that's good to hear. but i also had the cynical reaction of, well of course after 2013 a major label is like yes we want more white R&B singers.
― some dude, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 11:59 (ten years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/jojoofficial/sets/lovejo - free EP for valentine's day
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Friday, 14 February 2014 21:32 (ten years ago) link
this is dope. Phil Collins!
― Jody Beth Frozen (some dude), Friday, 14 February 2014 21:53 (ten years ago) link
her voice is so great now
― prolego, Friday, 14 February 2014 22:04 (ten years ago) link
The "Rapture" cover :O
― imago draggin' (The Reverend), Saturday, 15 February 2014 03:59 (ten years ago) link
Awww. When you said "Rapture" cover, I was expecting "House of Jealous Lovers".
― MarkoP, Saturday, 15 February 2014 04:09 (ten years ago) link
..................
― imago draggin' (The Reverend), Saturday, 15 February 2014 06:10 (ten years ago) link
preachhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/Biv_rBsCUAACMKQ.png
― all is fair in love and womp (monotony), Sunday, 16 March 2014 12:08 (ten years ago) link
haha the second tweet kinda undermines the "no shade" in the first tweet.
― Tim F, Sunday, 16 March 2014 12:58 (ten years ago) link
Thanks Jojo, for making sure I know to introduce this woman as working with the Agapé Choir, and not the Agape Choir! haha
― bobby shmorbius (The Reverend), Wednesday, 24 September 2014 20:50 (nine years ago) link
lol
― dyl, Wednesday, 24 September 2014 20:52 (nine years ago) link
http://www.rap-up.com/2015/04/15/new-music-jojo-far-from-heaven/
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Wednesday, 15 April 2015 21:37 (eight years ago) link
very "Stay"
― katherine, Thursday, 16 April 2015 00:57 (eight years ago) link
JOJO
this song!
― lex pretend, Thursday, 16 April 2015 08:15 (eight years ago) link
The much trailed Tringle is now streaming at http://iamjojoofficial.com
― Jeff W, Thursday, 20 August 2015 18:06 (eight years ago) link
"Save My Soul" is the pick of the three, I think
― Jeff W, Thursday, 20 August 2015 18:15 (eight years ago) link
they're... okay? idk i'm not as excited as i would have hoped
― dyl, Thursday, 20 August 2015 19:41 (eight years ago) link
When Love Hurts sounded great with the roots on fallon
― Spottie, Wednesday, 2 December 2015 06:49 (eight years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/iamjojoofficial/sets/lovejo2
new ep. ill-suited 90s house karaoke; the stand-out is the full version of one of the agape cuts
i was expecting a loooooot more from this comeback
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Friday, 18 December 2015 21:25 (eight years ago) link
haven't heard this yet, but I really liked the Anita Baker and Phil Collins covers on the first LoveJo EP. I wouldn't take this as a sign of what her comeback is, after all it's just an installment in her series of cover EPs.
― boring alt-reality reverend (The Reverend), Saturday, 19 December 2015 01:27 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-A54Zn-pNc
― Thybulle on the Dash (Spottie), Thursday, 13 February 2020 17:42 (four years ago) link