Soul Food is the official solo debut from Roger Mooking, formerly of the Juno-nominated outfit Bass is Base. Here, he runs the gamut from MC, vocalist, songwriter and producer and draws from his love of 60’s soul and Classic Hip Hop. Part Sade, Outkast, and Gnarls Barkley – the album is a low-key collection of 13 songs. There is a sense of fun from the first single “Umeus”, which features a nice play on words and vocals from the affable Roz Bell, but it’s short-lived.

With Mooking setting out to make a cd that sounds “as if you were listening to an ipod on shuffle” one might expect the album to bounce all over the place - but it really doesn’t stray very far from the world of hiphop soul. There are some tasteful moments -- the muted guitars in the background of “Tinglin”, the laid-back rhodes in “Champagne Dreamin”, the guitar/piano playing off one another in “Angels Dust” -- but the album never leaps up and asserts itself. I kept wanting the outtro to “Medicine” for example to break into an all-out jam, or the Seal-esque phrasing in “I Wish I Could Find You Diamonds” to just drive those choruses home, but to no avail. The songs ebb out with a whimper, and we’re left hungry again in half an hour.

I’m lost by the album’s overriding culinary angle. I’m not sure how food relates to music. The bio/press release plays up Mooking’s other life as a chef/restaurateur/Food Network host. This is fantastic for him… and I do get the whole “dash of this, dash of that” in wanting to “flavour” the album or cross musical genres, but it would’ve been nice to see the musicians/vocalists/songwriters themselves credited in the cd insert rather than a list of Mooking's favourite recipes.



Track Listing:

Carefree (intro)

Umeus

Sittin’

Waiting On The World To Change

Tinglin’

Why Oh Why

Champagne Dreamin’

Symphony on 26th

Medicine

I Wish I Could Find You Diamonds

Angels Dust

Sun’ll Come Up Tomorrow

We Don’t Need No More