AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Ab soul jmsn album1/30/2024 ![]() ![]() My listens of Brockhampton’s Iridescence and consequent perusal of the internet for professional opinion on the album were both met with quite a bit of surprise. He’s just a dude trying to sing his heart out. I love JMSN because he’s focused on putting out his music and isn’t chasing numbers or fame. For all intents and purposes, Velvet is a truly solo album, and the cohesiveness and style of JMSN’s vision is what makes this album special. JMSN isn’t reinventing the wheel with Velvet, in fact, it’s pretty tame in terms of experimentation, but it’s an incredible showcase of musicality and artistry. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the songs sonically, but the force behind them left something to be desired. Velvetis primarily filled with sensual proclamations of love and lust, done in a varied and creative way, but only “Mind Playin’ Tricks”, a song about losing yourself, truly resonated with me. Velvet, however, really lacked strong, interesting subject matter. There’s a lot of really catchy hooks, clever lines, and diverse delivery that really call to your attention throughout the album. 2”, a cool staccato style in “Pose”, and modulates his voice into something entirely different on “Inferno.” While his voice is great, it’s definitely not the powerhouse of others in his lane, and where he really shines is in his songwriting. He uses a pretty insane falsetto on songs like “So Badly” and “Talk is Cheap”, a poetic, almost rap-like cadence on “Levy Pt. JMSN’s voice is fantastic, and he particularly shows off the diversity of his delivery on this album. He does so many things with his voice, and because of his role as a producer, the instrumentation seems to weave together perfectly with his voice. Even more impressive, each of his previous albums had a different sound palette, only briefly touching on the style offered on Velvet. Almost entirely self produced and with only background features, Velvet is particularly impressive because of its lack of any outside help. There’s a lot of soft piano, soaring electric guitars, smooth basslines, and retro synths. The instrumentation is varied, clean, full-bodied, and great throughout. A little over an hour long, Velvet is a slow burn, lengthy but captivating. There’s a soft amber glow to the room, whisky is being served by a bartender in a vest, and you are slow dancing with a mysterious stranger. ![]() Imagine this scene: It’s 9PM on a Thursday and you’re at a fancy speakeasy. Velvet is a pretty apt name for the album, because it is SMOOTH. By the time we get to Velvet, JMSN had already transformed multiple times in style, look, and sound, driven away from the glamor of the mainstream. JMSN’s track record at the time was particularly notable, finding himself on the production and background vocals of Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar, a prominent feature on The Game’s Jesus Piece, a fabled collaboration project with Ab-Soul, early work with Kaytranada, and a plethora of other crazy collaborations and co-signs. Around the same time, contemporaries like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and Miguel were also just starting to pick up steam, but my sleeper pick was always on JMSN. I’ve been following JMSN’s progression since close to the very beginning with his debut Priscilla in 2012, a dark, depressed album of lost love and heartbreak. JMSN, on his latest album Velvet, has once again delivered a reinvented, silky smooth, soulful, and funky sound that will be the soundtrack to many slow candlelit nights. Quietly putting one killer album after another, Christian Berishaj, the man behind JMSN, is primarily a vocalist, but also produces, mixes, and engineers all of his own tracks. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |