ALBUM OF THE WEEK: James Vincent McMorrow – Post Tropical
Album Reviews | Released
James Vincent McMorrow – Post Tropical
(Believe/Vagrant)
3 out of 5
When I first heard James Vincent McMorrow it was back in 2011 via his sedating cover of my personal hero, Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love. Due to the stark simplicity of the track and the instant infuriation the myriad of “This cover is soooo much better than the original” comments provoked, it received a thumbs down from me, however McMorrow’s alluring pipes ignited interest..
Fast forward to 2014 and much like Steve Winwood in his sense of versatility and inventiveness, McMorrow has placed his indie-folk Brogues in the back of the wardrobe and opted for a new-fangled pair of genre-bending electro-pop ones in his best effort to become the third anomaly in electronic music behind man of the hour James Blake and Jamie Woon, with his newest effort, “Post Tropical”.
“I found a zip drive recently, which dates back to before I made my first record, and I’d re-recorded every single part of the N.E.R.D album – apart from the vocals – just for the joy of it. I wanted to give this record the feel and movement of the hip-hop records that I love.” states James of the entirely self-written, produced, and instrumentally performed album. Post Tropical undoubtedly explores neoteric sounds and fresh ideas in comparison to his debut platinum selling album, “Early in the Morning”, starting with opening track and single, “Cavalier”. The track’s coalescence of hand claps and warm-hearted keys are effectively tranquilizing, making it easy for the listener to find themselves lost before being abruptly reoriented to the sounds of archaic horns. The pulsing 808’s of “Red Dust” proposition it reminiscent of a Jessie Ware track. The lenient piano and John Legend-eque soul tinted vocals rendering bewitchingly melancholy lyrics make it a standout track on the album.
A pitch-black, shadowy warehouse painted golden by a gently burning incandescent candle is the imagery depicted by “All Points” as he harmonizes the line “I was in the dark” in his mountainous falsetto. The most swiftly moving track on the whole album builds by way of beatific “ahhhhs” before closing with the celestial synths and harmonies fading out and the rhythmic drumbeat coming to a brusque stop.
Tracks “Looking Out”, “Repeating” and “Post Tropical” see trips to Candy Mountain on Charlie The Unicorn’s back, Chocolate Rain, and Joseph Gordon- Levitt reciting “Where The Sidewalk Ends” in the form of interpretational dance….. Or that could most likely be the dream I just had. Past track 5 it’s almost inevitable to get side-tracked. McMorrow struggles to retain the engrossment and impelling welcome that the first half of the album embodied, with a majority of the second half of the album totally falling by the wayside.
“Post Tropical” is the product of James Vincent McMorrow’s deliberate drift, shaking the indie-folk shackles off and venturing into uncharted “nu-wave R&B” territory. Overall the record has its fair share of arrestive moments, but marginally falls beneath the waistline of the standards set by the league of swooners (Woon,Ware, Blake) that have made their mark on the genre. In a world of celebrated mediocrity the album is almost certainly bound to land on countless “one’s to watch for 2014” blog posts, but with the degree of instrumental, and vocal talent possessed by McMorrow, I can’t help but to expect a whiff of something more innovative.
Angela Petrovic
