Soul music without a soul 

James Bay makes his sophomore appearance with Electric Light. The album is like the Cheesecake Factory menu of music—spanning far too many genres, commercially engineered to satisfy but lacking any claim to authenticity. Electric Light feels like an album that would come from the solo ventures of a boy band artist. Bay obviously has talent and all the perks and products that come with major label support, but there is no individuality present. 

Electric Light begins with a skit, a conversation on the street between a man and a woman. It’s a breakup conversation; the man “doesn’t know how [he] feels about ‘us’.” It’s the perfect intro for the album because it is cliche and lacking any true depth. It’s followed up by “Wasted On Each Other,” which is the first taste of the excessive production present throughout the album. Each song is too busy with too many effects and layers.

Next up is “Pink Lemonade,” which could quite easily be mistaken for a song by The Strokes. The third track, “Wild Love,” is a slinky, electronic-infused pop/R&B song—like something Zayn would put out—and features lyrics that feel like they were written by an AI bot like, “I wanna go where the lights burn low.” On the next track, and more later on, Electric Love makes use of gospel sounds (as is current fashion) but never makes use of an actual choir. The album weighs in at 14 tracks, with two unnecessary skits. It could have been shortened even more by cutting a couple other songs (none of them particularly stand out so it doesn’t matter which). 

It’s important to note that James Bay has a great voice. Unfortunately, he has sold any soul he had to the devil of commercial pop music. The songs on Electric Light are fine radio fodder. It is a great album for children, who can latch on to its formulaic songs, won’t be overwhelmed by its excessive production and don’t have the experience to notice its complete lack of lyrical originality. All in all, it’s a solid C+ of an album.