Daily Dose: Swamp Dogg, "Answer Me, My Love"

Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.

Swamp Dogg has recruited an unlikely teammate to contribute to his forthcoming album, Love, Loss, And Auto-Tune, out Sept. 7 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is a credited producer on the record, and his touch on the already-released music is evident. On Wednesday, Swamp Dogg shared the second Vernon-backed single, “Answer Me, My Love,” a song originally made famous by Nat King Cole. The result of their partnership is a smooth, quasi-soul swirl of R&B sounds and warped production tactics. Listen to “Answer Me, My Love” below.

The track is rife with autotune, as the album’s name would suggest. At times, the vocal synthesizers swallow the entire song in a fashion approvable by Kanye. A bellowing horn section pipes in, too, reminding us Swamp Dogg is still the same adventurous soul musician from the ‘70s. The more modern production techniques, however, we can most likely chalk up to the constantly experimenting Vernon. Listen to the first single from the album, “I’ll Pretend,” right here.

Swamp Dogg, still an acutely aware musician at 75, is not afraid to tell it like it is. He said of his “Answer Me, My Love” cover:

“Answer Me, My Love” is what we call a ‘money record’ and since I need money, I recorded it. You can’t go wrong with a Nat “King” Cole hit! He never recorded a bad song and always got hits. I need to pay some bills.

Daily Dose: Swamp Dogg, “Answer Me, My Love”