I was reading a music trivia card from the board game. The question was: What album hit the top of the Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, and Pop charts all at the same time? The answer was "Promise" by Sade. I bought it and loved it. Masterfully understated instrumentation, mood extraordinaire, lyrics that listen very well, although when I finally got around to reading them I realized they weren't that special or complete. But they were sung so well in context with the music it didn't matter then.

All genres have stuff that just gets categorized there because it aspires to the genre or someone thinks it should be in that genre. It's not a judgment of quality, but of form or style. Much, maybe most, of every genre is of poor quality, not rising up to the qualitative standards to qualify as Jazz, for example, just dabbling at it. But every so often someone comes along and does attain the heights in a given genre. Not very often though, these days. Mediocrity has settled upon the land, hence we wax nostalgic and find the old masters anew.

There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com