The Free Nationals Recruit the Voice of Daniel Caesar for Debut, Beauty & Essex
Evan Dale // Oct 11, 2018
The Free Nationals – the band best known for being the traditional and collective setup of Anderson .Paak’s complex sound – are here to take their own steps into the limelight with their debut single, Beauty & Essex. With it, they do everything but disappoint. The smooth, soulful, funk-driven vibes that we expect from a band that backs one of the smoothest, most soulful, funkiest multi-dimensionalists in the modern movement towards the classic sounds, this time provide the backdrop to another traditionalist proponent of the modern tier. It couldn’t have taken much for either side of the collaboration to coerce the collaboration to happen at all, but God bless the individual that introduced Daniel Caesar to The Free Nationals in the first place.
Beauty & Essex is smooth and sexy in all the right places, allowing both sides of the collaboration to shine in the ways that have in the recent past made both such impressive forces in music. Daniel Caesar delivers an expectedly emotional torrent of sex and understanding that emerges vocally and lyrically. But praise for Caesar aside, there needs to be something said about The Free Nationals and their ability to not only work with, but be a noticeably key element in their work with such powerhouse frontmen. Like the modern-day Funk Brothers, The Free Nationals are quickly becoming the premier session musicians of the funk, jazz, and neo-soul revitalizations. Unlike the funk brothers, a strong and public admiration for their talent is allowing them to flourish as more than backing instrumentalists, and as the amazing band they truly are.
With .Paak’s Oxnard on the horizon and Beauty & Essex on the rise, more likely soon to come from The Free Nationals.
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