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| Self Portrait | 
 enlarge | Artist: Lalah Hathaway
Label: Stax Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $9.20
You Save: $9.78 (52%)
New (54) Used (11) from $9.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 1106
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 30308
UPC: 888072303089
EAN: 0888072303089
ASIN: B0013FCW0M
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: CD in the original case. Brand new, never used, Factory sealed. ship fast.
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| Tracks:
| • | Let Go | | • | Breathe | | • | On Your Own | | • | For Always | | • | That Was Then | | • | Learning to Swim | | • | One Mile | | • | Little Girl | | • | Naked Truth | | • | What Comes Around | | • | UDO | | • | Tragic Inevitability |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Critically acclaimed vocalist and song stylist Lalah Hathaway continues the musical legacy with her Stax Records debut "Self Portrait," a contemporary urban soul collection that takes you on a journey through joy and sadness and everything in between. Features the new single "Let Go." The daughter of soul legend Donny Hathaway, Lalah is well respected in both Jazz and R&B. This album is an introspective journey into the contemporary adult R&B world. Self Portrait will truly satisfy Lalah's core fans and is so refreshing that it will guarantee new fans will become Lalah fans.
Album Description
Critically acclaimed vocalist and song stylist Lalah Hathaway continues her musical legacy with her Stax Records 2008 debut Self portrait, a contemporary urban soul collection that takes one on an introspective journey into the contemporary adult R&B world. Self Portrait will truly satisfy Lalah's core fans,and is so refreshing that it will guarantee her new fans as well! The album features special guests Marcus Miller, Joe Sample and Rahsaan Patterson. Lalah is the daughter of the famed Soul artist Donny Hathaway and she has sold nearly half a million CDs in her career. This project reunites Lalah with noted producer Rex Rideout, who also produced her recent #1 single "Forever, for always, for love". "Lalah continues to fortify her legacy as a modern day vocal priestess. This album is her most personal, laden with severe emotional voodoo and sublime passion.'- Garth Trinidiad, host of KCRW's "Chocolate City".
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 A soulful, hypnotic journey. June 3, 2008
35 out of 37 found this review helpful
Soul/Jazz vocalist Lalah Hathaway has a velvet, smoky voice that demands exuberant attention. Her songs wrangle with passion and vibrant inimacy.
Enjoying traditional jazz and neo-soul styles, "Self Portait" is a familiar and yet still the future of adult/contemporary R&B and vocal jazz.
Lalah's songwriting is tight and compelling with her vocals enjoying the spotlight as her talents are well exposed through vibrant production here.
With "Self Portrait", her new disc just out on the reactivated Stax imprint (which is distributed via Concord Music Group) and her fifth studio album, including the Joe Sample duet The Song Lives On, and on which she co-wrote and co-produced, she is poised to express who she is, where she is, today, at this very moment.
After four years from the rather mediocre and monotonous Outrun the Sky, on this one she takes listeners on an intimate, explorative path through her own past, present and future and how it's shaped the woman she's now become.
The album also brings Lalah together once again with renowned producer Rex Rideout, who served as the producer of the 2004 Grammy-nominated all-star tribute album "Forever, For Always, For Luther", for which Lalah achieved her first #1 single for "Forever, For Always, For Love".
The CD also calls upon the talents of co-writers and vocalists Rahsaan Patterson and Sandra St. Victor.
Leading the 12-song collection is "Let Go," a dance-oriented, up-tempo number she produced with Rex Rideout and wrote alongside Rahsaan Patterson. And just as the title suggests, the song is about acknowledging and releasing whatever's not working to make room for the next experience. The track reminds the listener of Lalah's 1990 hit "Heaven Only Knows".
Both songs share the same vibe of exercising the faith that everything will be just fine at the end of the day. "I've had to let go of quite a few things, quite a few situations and a couple of mindsets," she admits about the origins of her first single. "Every so often, I have to remind myself to just let some stuff go - from people and relationships to an old pair of jeans".
Ms. Hathaway is one of American finest Soul/Jazz chanteuse.
I have to admit that she is extremely attractive...as well.
This selection of songs sees her on jazzier territory, that will appeal to fans of Anita Baker and Regina Belle.
Engaging songs like "For always" and "Tragic Ivevitability" underline just how fine a singer Lalah is.
Special guests Lenny Castro on percussion, Brandon Filelds on saxophone and Tim Carmon on keyboads. .
"1 Mile", and "Learning To Swim" are smoother affairs with gentle lilting grooves.
I just love the songs she sings and her soulful style.
Enjoy !
 Sorry but I disagree w/ others -- I'm bored June 27, 2008
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
Maybe I was expecting too much or maybe I have been spoiled by Lalah's past work (solo and guest appearances) but to me, this CD and "Outrun the Sky" are so subpar to what she's done and what I know she CAN do. I absolutely adored her first two CDs. The production, music, and lyrics were fresh, unique, creative, original, and touching. And of course, the voice is nothing short of hypnotizing. The same goes for every one-track guest appearance she has done on others' work, as well as her contributions to that one Joe Sample CD. But this latest CD is nothing like that. In fact, to me, it's exactly the opposite -- music, lyrics, and themes are boring, uninventive, unoriginal, untouching. And I never thought Lalah would stoop to putting rap on her material (for the rap fans, nothing against it, I just don't think it's necessary or fits Lalah's voice/style). And I don't even want to talk about "Outrun the Sky." Except for a couple of decent tracks, the male bashing was so unlike her and I was truly disappointed. I love Lalah as much as the next fan. That's why I must be honest with my feelings when I say -- and it hurts to say because I never thought I'd have to -- that Lalah now sounds...like...everybody...else.
 High Quality Music July 19, 2008
13 out of 21 found this review helpful
Lalah Hathaway breathes fresh air into the regenerated Stax label with what is possibly her best album to date. It's definitely my favourite already. If you're anything like me, and you wonder where all the good music has gone, aghast at the ever-increasing paucity of deep meaningful soul and the ever-increasing dominance of superficial, gimmicky R&B, then this CD might reassure you. Lalah's lineage is not only clear in her warm vocal tone, style and phrasing but also in the kind of music she chooses to make. Donny would undoubtedly be proud.
Hathaway writes a great deal of the album herself (with co-writing credits mainly going to her producers) and Rex Rideout, who had critical success last year with Ledisi's Lost & Found, takes care of the majority of the production work. He and Hathway had worked together before but not to this extent. Hathaway herself takes up the rest of the production with help from Kenneth Crouch, Terrace Martin, Paula Gallitano and Manuel Hugas & Wiboud Burkens.
The album kicks off with the obviously radio-intended "let go", co-written and featuring vocals by my man Rahsaan Patterson and while a pleasant enough mid-tempo head-nodder (though personally I could have done without the vocoder), the song only hints at the magic to be found within the album. My personal favourites include the smooth jazz-influenced ballads "on your own", "for always", "that was then", "learning to swim" (which features fretless bass by Marcus Miller, no less), "little girl", (which actually contains the spoken voice of the great man himself; an interview excerpt from the album These Songs for You, Live!), "what goes around" and the brilliant album closer, "tragic inevitability".
Noteworthy if not a firm favourite right now, is "1 mile". It also sounds like it might have radio in mind. It certainly has a definite hip-hop/r&b edge and contains a rap I thought was by Andre 3000 when I first heard it but is actually by a dude called Andre Edwards aka "Bokie".
This is definitely high quality music - in my opinion of course - with deep, steamy bass lines and jazzy keyboard chords, and I say a huge thank you to Lalah Hathaway for giving us something decent to listen to for a change. Decidedly recommended.
Also highly recommended: 2004's Outrun the Sky, 1999's The Song Lives On (with Joe Sample) and even 1990's Lalah Hathaway. For me, the Gary Taylor ballad "i'm coming back" and the Angela Winbush one, "i gotta move on" are worth the price of that last CD I mentioned, all on their own.
 Not Lalah's Best Effort June 19, 2008
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
"Self Portrait" is Lalah's debut CD for the Stax label. Although much more satisfying than Angie's Stone's disappointing debut disc for the label, "Self Portrait" is missing that certain "Wow!" factor that is found on Lalah's previous efforts.
After an amazing CD release with the eclectic, funky "Outrun The Sky",
I was expecting one step up or, at least, to stay with the same formula of her previous effort. Not that this CD is bad. It is good, compared to today's standards. But, unlike her previous CD, none of the songs here stand out. The first single release "Let Go" just sounds very run-of-the-mill, radio-friendly music. Lalah is in fine voice throughout the entire disc but, overall, the material was just good. Nothing great or memorable here.
Still, Daddy's Little Girl June 4, 2008
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
While Lalah has indeed evolved into her own as an artist, obvious and unavoidable comparisons to her famous dad are inevitable, especially by those of us intimately aware of his treasure trove of work....the timbres of their voices are oh so similar and in many cases are a painful reminder of the awesome talent that was Donny Hathaway, who left us entirely too early. Nonetheless, this is indeed a mature set allowing Lalah to show off her simply woooooooonderful vocal skills/acuity. Thankfully, it is not a cheap attempt to grab a hip-hop/now audience, thus trashing a beautiful instrument...it is appropriately marketed to grown folks. Nice, smooth, arrangements make Lalah's latest project refreshing and satisfying. ("Breathe' is definitely a highlight)
Hiiiiiiighly recommended!
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