Kind of inventing his own genre building block by building block, soul singer songwriter Jarrod Lawson is worth it even if you don’t happen to be a hardcore soul fan or listen to 21st century R&B much. The catchy riffery of the George Benson-esque ‘Laugh at Yourself’ verges on smooth but is the best track and I liked the duet with Raquel “Sweet Side” Rodriguez on ‘Next Move’.
But what’s here is mostly quite samey, more about a sustained vibe where generous vamps rule and there’s a certain dipping into hip hop and more gospel soul territory along the way without being too deep about it. Lawson has a really great voice, sort of Bobby Womack-like, throaty and emotive, a strong feel and groove to what he’s about. There’s a lot to like here without it being a truly special album.
You might ask how do you get to be truly special? There is no magic formula. Any fule kno. But the songs need to be more memorable beyond the silky licks and that fine voice and the fact that warm love is agreeably present everywhere. More variety, different production values maybe and from my point of view more or even some jazz in it is a must.
An American, Lawson has had 2 studio albums so far, Be The Change (2020) which is better because of the jazzier feel on ‘Embrace What We Are’ and soul organ flavour to ‘Evalee’ and Jarrod Lawson (2014) that has the stunning ‘Everything I Need’. The UK radio station Jazz FM championed Lawson early on. Collaborators here also include a producer called Carrtoons, and singers Eric Roberson & Allen Stone plus rappers JSWISS and Don Smith
Quite a few of the tracks are skippable but ‘Laugh at Yourself,’ featuring Roberson isn’t. You may know his cover of Robert Palmer’s Double Fun (1978) era ‘Every Kinda People‘ featuring smooth jazz icon Jeff Lorber. And do check out the dude’s ‘Sweeter Than You‘ where he duets with the wonderful Avery Sunshine on Roberson’s Beautifully All Over the Place released back in March. While pretty decent Just Let It isn’t really made for jazz lovers, now is it, no matter how much you stretch the so called “rules” they teach you in at even the most switched on jazz music college. That fact doesn’t impinge on digging the record at all. Unless you are a very stubborn listener.
