Flashback Friday: All Saints - Black Coffee | Why it gotta be black!?

In light of William Orbit’s recent passing, this Friday we’re going to flashback to one of my favourite William Orbit productions — All Saints’ 2000 single “Black Coffee”, which has not left my playlist for the past 20 years. This is a song I always play when I’m having a late night sad bitch moments and I want something that’s moody that’s still a bop.

Much like Madonna’s “Ray of Light”, All Saints’ “Black Coffee” is a re-working of a pre-existing song, which was then flipped into something completely new by Orbit’s arrangements and signature production. If I had to cite a song as being ‘signature’ William Orbit, it’d probably be “Black Coffee”. It features all of the stuff he likes and goes for. A warm and sharp set of drums, twangy guitars, a bit psychedelic, a bit 60s and his trademark synth which sounds like a sonar. “Black Coffee” is such an amazingly produced song, which features lots of things which shouldn’t sit together, but somehow do.

When I heard that William Orbit had produced songs for All Saint’s second studio album, I went out and bought it immediately. And for the first couple of months “Black Coffee”, “Dreams” and “Surrender” were the only songs on the album I listened to. Only months down the line did I eventually decide to listen to the rest of the album. Only to go right back to “Black Coffee”, “Dreams” and “Surrender”.