''Early Riser'' is the debut studio album by American musician

Taylor McFerrin Taylor McFerrin (born June 28, 1981 at San Francisco, California) is an American DJ, music producer, keyboardist & beatboxer based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. He is the eldest son of popular vocalist and classical conductor Bobb ...

. It was released on June 2, 2014 through

Brainfeeder Brainfeeder is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Flying Lotus in 2008, focusing on electronic music and instrumental hip hop. It has signed artists such as Ras G, Samiyam, The Gaslamp Killer, Thundercat, ...

. Produced by McFerrin himself, it features contributions from

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also ra ...

César Camargo Mariano César Camargo Mariano (born 19 September 1943) is a Brazilian pianist, arranger, composer and music producer. Biography Mariano was born in São Paulo. In June 1957 the American trombone player Melba Liston invited thirteen-year-old Mariano to p ...

Emily King Emily King (born July 10, 1985) is an American singer and songwriter. She started her career in 2004 and her first album '' East Side Story'' was released in August 2007. In December 2007, King was listed as a Grammy nominee for Best Contempora ...

, Jason Fraticelli, Marcus Gilmore,

Nai Palm Naomi Saalfield (born 15 May 1989), known professionally as Nai Palm, is an Australian musician, best known as the vocalist, guitarist and occasional pianist for the jazz/ funk band Hiatus Kaiyote. Early life Nai Palm was born Naomi Grace Saa ...

Robert Glasper Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger with a career that bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won fou ...

RYAT Ryat (often stylized as RYAT and pronounced "riot") is an experimental electronic music project created by female producer Christina Amalie Mattei, also known as Christina Teleaer, based in Los Angeles, California. She has released music on Obvio ...

and

Thundercat Thundercat or Thundercats may refer to: * Thundercat (snowmobile), a series of snowmobiles produced by Arctic Cat * Thundercat (musician), stage name of Stephen Lee Bruner, an American musician * ThunderCats, a media franchise, featuring a fictio ...

Critical reception

''Early Riser'' was met with generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 78 based on ten reviews. Rory Foster of ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' wrote: "the album was not created lightly, and by no means deserves to be skimmed, but there's a diversity and thirst within this album that stands to keep ''Early Riser'' remembered for some time, and will no doubt lead McFerrin to achieve the same".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

's Andy Kellman wrote: "while ''Early Riser'' was pieced and patched together, it flows as a gleaming focused set that combines left-field electronics,

alternative R&B Alternative R&B (also referred to as alt-R&B, indie R&B, hipster R&B, dark R&B, emo R&B and left-field R&B) is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B that began in the mid 2000s and came to prom ...

, and futuristic jazz". Del F. Cowie of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' wrote: "it's possible to detect elements of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

, '70s soul, hip-hop and electronica in McFerrin's heliocentric mix, but through his intentional blurring of the boundaries, he underlines his mastery of and ultimate disregard for genre categorie". John Paul of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, f ...

'' wrote: "with McFerrin and this latest crop of open, creative minds exploring the hallowed halls of jazz, there seems to be hope the form can and will continue to exist and evolve with society, remaining a relevant and integral art form on the musical and cultural landscape". Renato Pagnani of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' found that the album is "built for slow weekend mornings spent in bed with a loved one more than brisk, early-morning runs". In a mixed review, Lanre Bakare of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' stated: "McFerrin seeks to take some of those flights of fancy and turn them into something that’s compatible with modern hip-hop and

neo-soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contem ...

Track listing

Personnel

—

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

(track 1),

Rhodes electric piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(tracks: 1-6, 10-12),

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

(track: 2-4, 6, 8-10),

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gu ...

(tracks: 3, 4, 10),

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

(tracks: 4, 10), drum programming (track 11), producer *Jason Fraticelli — vocals (track 1), bass (tracks: 1, 11, 12) *Marcus Gilmore — drums (tracks: 1, 4, 7, 11, 12) *Naomi "

" Saalfield — vocals (track 3) *

— Rhodes electric piano & synthesizer (track 7) *Stephen "

" Bruner — bass (track 7) *

— vocals (track 8) *Christina "

" McGeehan — vocals (track 10) *Robert Keith "

Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a constabl ...

" McFerrin Jr. — vocals (track 11) *

— piano (track 11) *Simon Benjamin — art direction, photography

Charts

References

External links

* 2014 debut albums Brainfeeder albums {{2010s-electronic-album-stub