Supernatural

posted in: Artist Features • Urban

With a gospel and jazz-singing mother and a guitar-playing, producing and songwriting father, it was almost a no-brainer for A-Natural to follow in the family business. In addition to music, religion was a constant in the singer/producer’s childhood, and a focus that’s continued in his career as a gospel-pop artist. That said, his song Selah would seem pretty secular if not for the title. Loosely translated from Hebrew as pause, and think of that, Selah indicates a musical interlude in the liturgy. The track jumps off with a monster beat, sounding like N.E.R.D. re-envisioning Janet Jackson’s If. Crunching, squealing textures lay the groundwork for the chorus, where A-Natural bleats Selah over and over. It’s hard to discern any piety in lyrics about going out to the club and dealing with the paparazzi. But maybe we’re missing the deeper meaning. We’ll pause, and think of that. You do the same.