I've been running through Omar's discography kinda hard the last few months and I got to thinking "Man, this dude has been in it for while".

1. Rank his discography.
2. What was the song that put you on Omar?
3. Have you seen him live?

There's Nothing Like This (1990)
Music (1992)
For Pleasure (1994)
This Is Not A Love Song (1997)
Best By Far (2001)
Sing...(if you want it) (2006)
The Man (2013)
Love In Beats (2017)

Omar is a living legend imo

1.Ranked in descending order
This is Not A Love Song
For Pleasure
Best By Far
Music
Love In Beats
The Man
There's Nothing Like This
Sing....

2. Growing up in the UK, "There's Nothing Like This" was the first song I heard by him. I remember being moved and intrigued at the time but at 9 years old I wasn't buying music yet so didn't hear the album until a few years later. My first Omar album was For Pleasure and I was hooked. Little Boy is phenomenal as is a lot of that album.

3. I think I've seen Omar 6 times now - all at the London Jazz Cafe. He puts on a weeks residence there every year so it's pretty easy to catch him.

I love Omar's music and he's a good guy. Met him at a friends wedding once and he was as smooth and affable as I thought he'd be.

1. For Pleasure

This album is like the Illmatic of UK Soul.
* David Frank (from The System) as a producer.
* Leon Ware writing.
* Lamont Dozier writing and producing.
* Ray Parker Jr. played guitar

The harmonies at the end of "Can't Get Nowhere".
Omar's synth work on the bridge on "Keep Steppin'"?
When I first got into Omar, I was obsessed with Best By Far
and This Is Not A Love Song. But now? No question it's For Pleasure.

2. This Is Not A Love Song
3. Best By Far
4. The Man
5. Music

6. Love In Beats (I need to spend more time with this LP).
7. There's Nothing Like This
8. Sing...(if you want to)

Sing was a disappointment. I so wanted it to be good because it had been 5 years since he had put something out. I mess with "Get It Together", "All For Me" and "It's So", but the rest is kinda eh. Both the Common and Stevie Wonder collaborations fell flat to me.

A friend of mine sent me a RealPlayer link (I'm dating myself with that) of "In The Morning", and it was one of those moments where you remember where you were. I'd never heard anything like that before.

I saw Omar live only once. It was in a small venue here in Chicago called The Hot House. The stage was only >< far off the ground, so we were all crammed in there on top of dude. But he killed the show. I was lucky to find an audio recording of it back during the soul seek days...ha. He was supposed to come to the US in 2019 but had some visa issues. Either way, he puts on an amazing show.

I had a housemate that did a semester in Spain and came back with an Omar tape in 91. It was on since then.

Saw him live in DC years and years ago...it was a club full of Omar fans...like going to church.


My favorite track might be "In the Mist of It"

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDm7Buu7XNI)

but "Think the World of You"

"Essensual"

"Outside"

The newer joints on Love In Beats and The Man are strong too.


I mean dude's catalog is the most complete of the whole Neo Soul era.

then I saw he's British. Don't know that he ever popped like that in the U.S. Did he?

Omar
Soul II Soul
Loose Ends

They planted the early seeds of what is commonly called neo-soul. A lot of Omar's early stuff didn't hit here in the US in the early 90s, but if you were an underground soul head and in tune with the UK music scene in the 90s, you probably knew about him.

A lot of that changed with his 2001 Best By Far album. He had features with both Erykah Badu and Angie Stone (depending on which version you got). He also had a successful tour in the US on that album as well. The Soulquarians tapped him for two songs on Common's Electric Circus album. So Omar definitely had a presence in the US and is DEFINITELY worth checking out.

i gotta check him out soon