Lucy Pearl: Lucy Pearl

At a time when R&B was dominated by mechanical beats and sample-happy producers, Raphael Saadiq's Toni! Tony! Toné! made defiantly organic, old-fashioned soul music. The group broke up following the release of 1996's House Of Music, but Saadiq's new band Lucy Pearl understands that subtlety and craft are almost invariably more effective than histrionics and adherence to formula. About as ego-free as supergroups get, Lucy Pearl teams Saadiq with singer Dawn Robinson (formerly of En Vogue) and former A Tribe Called Quest producer and DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad for some of the sweetest, most unassuming R&B in years. Perhaps the only musician in history to work with John Mellencamp, The Bee Gees, and the Luniz, Saadiq clearly understands where different forms of music intersect, and Lucy Pearl seamlessly blends R&B with everything from disco to rock to hip-hop without lapsing into inconsistency. Muhammad's scratching, for example, is nimble and accomplished but so unobtrusive it's almost subliminal, while "Don't Mess With My Man" is deft, R&B-inflected disco, driven by Robinson's powerhouse vocals. "Dance Tonight," Lucy Pearl's first single—it's also featured on the Love & Basketball soundtrack—is its standout track, a lush, string-laden dance-floor fantasia with a simplistic lyric ("Let's purchase two new Bentleys / I know that it looks trendy") that's rendered an afterthought by the song's transcendent melody. "You," an irresistible fusion of hip-hop and R&B, is highlighted by strong turns from former Tribe member Q-Tip and an uncharacteristically sweet Snoop Dogg, serving as another highlight on a consistent, adventurous album. Muhammad was always the most overlooked member of A Tribe Called Quest, but Lucy Pearl's debut captures the spirit, mood, and quality of TCQ's classic early work better than Q-Tip's anemic solo album did.