''Not Tight'' (stylized as ''NOT TiGHT'') is the debut studio album by
Domi and JD Beck
Domi and JD Beck (stylized as DOMi & JD BECK) are a jazz duo consisting of French keyboardist Domi Louna and American drummer JD Beck. The two met in 2018 and have since worked with Thundercat, Anderson .Paak, Herbie Hancock, Eric Andre, Arian ...
. It was released on July 29, 2022, through
Apeshit Inc. and
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...
. It was nominated for
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (previously: Best Pop Instrumental Album) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording arti ...
at the
65th Grammy Awards.
Release
Domi and JD Beck announced the release of ''Not Tight'' in June 2022 shortly after signing to
Anderson .Paak
Brandon Paak Anderson (born February 8, 1986), better known by his stage name Anderson .Paak (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and drummer. He released his debut mixtape, ''O.B.E. Vol. 1,'' in 2012 and went on to rel ...
's label Apeshit Inc. The album's release was preceded by four singles, including "Take a Chance", which featured Paak and was accompanied by a music video directed by Paak.
In August 2022, Domi and JD Beck performed a
Tiny Desk Concert for
NPR, featuring four tracks from the album. It was their first time performing the song "U Don't Have to Rob Me" in front of a live audience, which features both artists on vocals.
Critical reception
''Not Tight'' was met with critical acclaim. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the album received an aggregate score of 82 based on 5 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."
Writing for ''
Pitchfork'', writer Kieran Press-Reynolds praised Domi and JD Beck's technical virtuosity, calling the album "a smooth but frenetic set aimed at bringing jazz fusion to a new hyper-brained generation."
In a positive review for ''
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, fi ...
'', contributor Brandon Miller complimented the duo's "jaw-dropping" musicianship and chemistry, noting the album's "incredible time feel, unconventional beats, not to mention
neo-soul and
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
-stretching harmonies."
Other critics praised the album's "youthful charm," "stacked lineup" of featured artists,
and rapid-fire
breakbeat
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...
s and chord changes over complex
time signature
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
s.
's Bobby Carter called the album "ironically titled."
Track listing
Notes
* Every song title is stylized in all capital letters, except every letter "i" is lowercase.
Charts
References
{{reflist
2022 albums
Blue Note Records albums