You listen to one song by James Vincent McMorrow and you’re mesmerized. You can’t help it. His first two albums Early in the Morning and Post Tropical are what got everybody talking about his music that’s mysterious yet light as dawn (in a Bon Iver meets an Irish coastline kind of way). He’s a singer-songwriter whose voice is endearing and passionate, who voice grabs you by the hand, tickles your heart, makes you miss things you haven’t thought about a whiles–thanks to the deep, low moments of his songs that are just as beautiful as his sheer falsettos.
But it wasn’t until his third album that was released last year called We Move that James Vincent McMorrow’s music began to thicken a little and become more seductive as he flooded his tunes with an electronic, soulful, bluesy, R&B flavor (while keeping his quintessential vocals present). Songs like “I Lie Awake Every Night” and “One Thousand Times” are exemplary of his new sound, which proves just how strong of an artist he is by not sticking in that “singer-songwriter” bubble that’s washy and fragile (although lovely, of course), and instead pushes himself into new territory with new arrangements, new instruments, new points of view. His single off this album called “Rising Water” was helped produced by Nineteen85, the producer behind Drake.
This year JVM released another full length called True Care, which seems to find a comfortable middle between his earlier softness and his new creative direction. He keeps growing, this James Vincent McMorrow, and keeps challenging himself. It’s obvious. So, where will his sound take him to next? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Brooklyn Steel
6/15
8 p.m.
$25
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