Straight off his
chart topping hits overseas, 24-year-old UK import John Newman brings his debut
album, Tribute, to domestic
forefronts. It’s been all uphill for Newman ever since his featuring on fellow
British EDM quartet Rudimental’s international banger “Feel the Love” in 2012. These
past few months have been witness to a worldwide surge in popularity for
Newman’s music, which aims at ushering about a revival in retro British house
music infused with his own personal touch of highly stylized contemporary pop
beats.
Tribute was strikingly created with the intention to showcase Newman’s soulful
vocals cascading over retro music with a current pop appeal, and it does
succeed in that sense, however, what surprisingly resulted from this album were
dance floor tracks like “Love Me Again.” One listen to any of his songs gives justification to why this is shocking as his vocals are often raw-throated and
have a curiously short range to have the makings of a top charted dance song. None
of these issues posed a challenge to him since he’s been able to cross those
struggles numerous times and even seems to encourage Newman to primarily fall
back on the mid-range, unique inflections in his voice instead of straining it
to reach the high notes.
When asked to
describe what this album meant to him, Newman wistfully said “This record is a
culmination of my life to this point, its who I am and I wanted to thank
everyone who has helped, supported, loved me and been an inspiration to me.” If
that’s the case, he has been through some serious emotional clashes best
reflected in “Cheating,” a song that tells what can be inferred as a
self-depicted story of forgiving an intimate companion’s wandering eye and
affection. In it, Newman’s idea of cheating is
slightly different than the normal viewpoint by telling the girl to keep up
with her infidelity and with the heightened incorporation of a gospel choir
this song strikes the perfect retro-pop niche for his voice.
On the other scope
of cheating is his biggest hit to date, “Love Me Again,” which instead of asking
to continue on with infidelity pleads for forgiveness and a second chance. The
track itself begins amidst jazz focused instrumentals that quickly turn into a
pop anthem of sorts with a haunting chorus of “I need to know now, know now. Can you love me again?” This song is arguably the best on his debut
album and portrays a style of light British house music that doesn’t usually
make too much of an imprint on mainstream radio over here in the US. It’s that
uniqueness that fueled its international growth and with handfuls of different
remixes it’s hard not to fall in love with one of the versions. Further stepping into the depth of his
emotional demons is “Out of My Head,” the piano-ballad centered on the pains
that arise from alcoholism. “Running” stands out due to its infectious choral
harmonies of “I keep…keep running. I keep…keep coming back for more, no no.
Keep running.”
Similar to “Love
Me Again” and “Cheating,” the track “Losing Sleep” follows the same
formula of retro-pop elements with his typical crooning that ultimately makes
for a catchy tune, except the problem that becomes most notable is that there
is a complete lack of diversity and variety across the board. Some of the songs
end up molding into each other when listening to the album as a whole, don’t
get it twisted however because he is a talented singer with a sharp, soulful
voice. His biggest issues fall with harboring and constantly developing a more unique
approach to his voice or face being yesterday’s news.
Grade: B-
Grade: B-
