Sometimes I see a video of a performance or hear a track that makes me re-assess an artist. Last year I happened to catch the 200th episode of the Later with Jools Holland show (from the UK) and there were 2 performances that blew me away, and from artists that I really didn't love. One such performance was this one from Radiohead doing "Weird Fishes" and the other was by Mary J. Blige, who I've basically ignored for much of her career. The Radiohead song made me go back and re-listen to much of their output, and I found myself pulled in. When I first listened to Radiohead (OK Computer was when I entered, although I had liked "Creep" from Pablo Honey) I got into them for their great tunes. I stopped listening after Amnesiac, as I wasn't really ready for their journey into ambient electronica. But after seeing this song, I appreciated them for their atmospherics and great guitar (Jonny Greenwood is an amazing guitarist...and has great taste in reggae music...check out the disc "Jonny Greenwood Is The Controller" for a great sampler of classic roots reggae).
As for Mary J. Blige, I'm a huge fan of soul music but by the mid 80's synthesizers were rampant and all the electronics ruined most of soul/r&b. But the woman has talent...I can't find a video of that performance b/c the BBC pulled all links due to copyrights (was released as part of a Jools Holland compilation DVD) so I'll just post a link to the video of the song.
Mary J. Blige tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETfNxDVlpQ
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