17 min listen
Modern Classics: PJ Morton made Nas’s Stevie Wonder dream come true
FromSwitched on Pop
ratings:
Length:
29 minutes
Released:
May 17, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
PJ Morton is one of the hardest-working musicians on the scene today. Maybe you’ve seen him playing keys with Maroon 5, or fronting a full string section in his NPR “Tiny Desk” concert. Maybe you’ve immersed yourself in his Grammy-award winning album We Are. On all of these projects, Morton evinces his mastery for taking classic soul and R&B and updating it with modern sounds. Other musical legends have taken notice. On his latest release, Watch The Sun, Morton is joined by some of his own sources of inspiration, singer Stevie Wonder and rapper Nas. The three combined forces on Morton’s track "Be Like Water," which recites an uplifting mantra over unsettled harmonies. The effect is hypnotizing. Morton spoke with Switched On Pop about what it was like to work with his heroes, and to share overlooked modern classics from Wonder’s and Nas’s catalogs.
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Released:
May 17, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Taylor Swift’s Beethovian Blank Space: Taylor Swift’s Blank Space is about emptiness of the heart. This motif of Blank Space is contained through the entire piece: from the drums, to the melody, to the lyrics. We pull away the sonic structures to show how Taylor recreates that empty feeling... by Switched on Pop