![]() Bridges’ willingness to be vulnerable is part of his strength as a songwriter in contemporary R&B. On the flip side, “Why Don’t You Touch Me” explores a topic we usually hear from women: feeling undesirable to your partner. With lyrics such as, “ Tell me how you like it/I just wanna try it/Tease me but provide it/You got me excited,” that might change after this LP. “Sexy” hasn’t been a word often associated with Bridges, who has been cautious with that subject matter in the past because of his faith. “Motorbike,” the album’s first single, and “Steam” are standard songs of infatuation and adoration, but “Magnolias,” “Details” and “Sho Nuff” take the album in a sensual and sultry direction. Little Simz’s ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’.Tyler The Creator’s “Call Me If You Get Lost”.Following what used to be a standard R&B practice, Bridges leaves room for listeners to apply secular meaning to lyrics like, “ When all else fails, your love will last forever.” Best albums of 2021 “Born Again” is a spiritual declaration of renewal from Bridges. From the Glasper-produced opener, “Born Again,” it’s clear this will be a new experience for listeners. Gold-Diggers Sound clocks in at a tight 36 minutes, 46 seconds with 11 tracks (39 minutes, 30 seconds for the deluxe LP, which includes the short but incredible “Summer Rain” featuring Jazmine Sullivan). In this case, it means the opposite: This Bridges is less structured than we’ve previously heard. Usually, declaring that an artist has moved in a more contemporary direction suggests a switch to a formulaic sound. This album brings D’Angelo, Maxwell, Frank Ocean and Miguel to mind, and boasts joints that can live on urban mainstream radio alongside acts such as Daye and Silk Sonic. ![]() This is the Bridges we heard on features released during the pandemic such as John Mayer’s “Inside Friend” and Lucky Daye’s “All About You.” The retro influence hasn’t been discarded, but Gold-Diggers Sound is in the neo soul pocket, invoking ’70s soul and funk and pulling in elements of progressive jazz with assists from Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold and Terrace Martin. It’s music you can throw on in the crib and live with. The result is a less perfect work than Bridges’ other projects, but a stellar R&B album. And he, his collaborators (including Ricky Reed and Nate Mercereau, who also co-produced Good Thing) and musicians worked through the songs during sessions instead of recording music that had already been written. People came through the studio to hang out instead of him going out to party. 11 in Los Angeles.īridges flipped his normal working schedule from day to night. Musician Leon Bridges performs during the Gold-Diggers Sound tour at The Wiltern on Oct. Recalling the Soulquarians’ 1998 takeover of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York to record D’Angelo’s Voodoo, the location helped drive the feel of the album. His goal was to tap into a different creative energy to produce something different from his previous two offerings. ![]() Gold-Diggers Sound, Bridges’ third studio album, is named after the East Los Angeles studio/speak-easy/boutique hotel hybrid that the 32-year-old artist claimed as both home and work base for roughly two years while completing the project. But they also placed him in a niche category - a retro soul artist channeling crooners of the ’50s and ’60s like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. The singer’s first two outings, 2015’s Coming Home and 2018’s Good Thing, were critically praised, Grammy-nominated (Grammy-winning for Good Thing) and cemented him as a formidable talent. Leon Bridges is over the “vintage soul” label. The Undefeated asked our writers to pick the most important albums from an insane year.
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