Maryland, USA, born and raised, Liverpool, UK, based singer / songwriter, Jalen Ngonda’s debut LP, Come Around And Love Me, is an absolutely stunning set of 11 originals. A proper album of perfectly crafted 2 – 3 minute songs, that’s meant to be played – and flawless – from start to finish. Sequenced to be listened to in its entirety, but where anything you might choose to cherry-pick is a standout. This brilliant batch of ballads and dancers, while referencing musical history, essentially, effectively sidesteps it. Collectively creating something timeless. Something that could have been produced anywhere within the last 60 years. 

Goodness only knows how much the album must have cost to commit to tape, since it’s clearly the work of a full band, and possibly a full orchestra, holed up in a high quality studio. You can hear the vintage gear. Practically feel the valves’ warm orange glow. It’s the sort of record that, quite simply, these days never gets made. Those involved – Jalen, producers, Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito, plus the musicians, assembled from Daptone Records’ extended family – must surely all be seriously schooled, experts, connoisseurs of all things SOUL, since the pieces are rich with a wealth of rare 45s and grooves that have gone before. 

There are, of course, nods to familiar hooks, and homages to past classics. It would be impossible for there not to be. Motown is an obvious major influence, and the title track in particular, with its vibes, strings and echoed congas, strongly recalls Marvin’s What’s Going On? There are touches of  the later Temptations and Four Tops. The broken hearted passion of The Persuaders. The staccato stabs, and single repeated piano note, of That’s All I Wanted From You could be a tribute to Gloria Ann Taylor’s moody masterpiece, Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing. If You Don’t Want My Love packs a punchy, catchy chorus as lush as Leroy Hutson. It Takes A Fool pays its respects to Isaac Hayes’ epic cover of Hal David & Burt Bacharach’s Walk On By. With its totally authentic Bar-Kays-like backing and sleazy licks of snaking psychedelic guitar it summons the “Black Classical” his seminal Hot Buttered Soul.

This is 21st Century soul for lovers of modern and Northern, and lovers full stop. While Jalen’s lyrics here are solely concerned with relationships – a harking after, perhaps, days less complicated – I’m left in no doubt that if he turned his hand to something politically charged he would, equally, completely crush it.  

Jalen Ngonda’s Come Around And Love Me is out now on Daptone Records.