Album Notes

RA-RE VALVERDE A BEAUTIFUL MESS - BIO "Who knew that "A Beautiful Mess" would be one of my favorites this year!? "Maybe I'm The 1", "Love Will", "Girlfriend", "Til U Come Home", "In This Love"... i am loving it! It's like someone took 1 part Prince, 1 part Sade, 1 part Sarah and created a whole, unique, sophisticated, urban-grudged & funked out Ra-Re. It's all such A Beautiful Mess, it is! It needs to be said tho... "B With U" is hands down, my favorite! This is an Indie goody!" -Message from the People via myspace Ra-Re's tone is like chocolate silk. The lyrics are pure and the vocal arrangements are left but exactly right...a must get! - Jill Scott Singer/Author/Actress "Truly one of the most forward thinking artist to emerge in the soul genre. Ra-Re Valverde's A Beautiful Mess is pure artistry." - Rahsaan Patterson Singer/Artist "Ra-Re is soul music's newest jewel. From top to bottom, A Beautiful Mess is a deliciously bold, undeniably eclectic, and lyrically introspective." - David Mitchell The Urban Network What happens when love don’t pay the bills/How will we get by on a feeling? Who’s gonna understand how hard we try? What happens when love don’t pay the rent/And all the money’s spent? Who’s gonna understand the time? /I’m telling’ you love will An excerpt from “Love Will” taken from the album A Beautiful Mess Right away, music pundits, radio station programmers and audiences alike will listen to Ra-Re Valverde and proclaim the ushering of a "SOUL EMPRESS”. Not exactly a misnomer, but perhaps the "neo-soul" term may be too limiting. The soul is undoubtedly there, And if the newness is prevalent, it's because of Ra-Re's youthful outlook, the fact that she's contemporary—but her heart, her passion, her outlook is that of a soul singer from generations past. To look at her myspace page, one could glean that her diverse mix of musical heroes are Prince, Sarah Vaughn, Bjork, Miles Davis, Bobby McFerrin, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, and an endless trove of artistic brilliants. You see, Ra-Re is an unabashed New Yorker—born and raised in the Bronx, yet resides in Harlem; encompassing what that wonderful city may have to offer. Hence, the name of her debut album, the independent release of A Beautiful Mess. The album is a bold and soulful effort, undeniably eclectic, and lyrically introspective. It's a 14-song musical portfolio from a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and visionary—who may be doing something that's a bit left of center, yet still commercial or accessible enough to be embraced by the masses. Ra-Re (meaning sunrise-sunset) came up with the album's title simply as a description of her life. "The title A Beautiful Mess represents the balance between the many ups and downs that life has to offer, and finding the beauty and color in the midst,” she says. And this beautiful mess is all Ra-Re. She wrote or co-wrote all of the songs featured, and produced five of them alone. The song "Outside the Box," (with its mid-tempo and bass-heavy groove) produced by Jamie Siegel (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill), according to Ra-Re is the song that was an impetus for how she would approach the entire project. The opening lyrics seem to suggest it all… “Normality don’t exist for me/Mostly I live on the other side/Fine with me, I’m cream-filled with such complexities/ and see love in unordinary things/Living outside the box somewhere on high/I don’t wanna come down” An excerpt from "Outside the Box" “Outside the Box” leads to such other Beautiful Mess gems as "Love Will" featuring Peter Hadar—offering an optimistic yet naïve message that relationships can get tense due to financial woes, but love will… There's also the poignant "Them Eyes"—where Ra-Re paints a lyrical yet heartfelt picture, vicariously seeing the world through the eyes of a young lady involved in an abusive relationship, and a homeless woman who may have missed her calling as a famous singer but still