Actor-turned-artist Raleigh Ritchie comes through with a solid debut, filled with radio-ready catchiness and plenty of quirks.
Raleigh Ritchie/ You're a Man Now, Boy
Let's first address the elephant in the room. Raleigh Ritchie is a musical alias of Bristol-born actor Jacob Anderson, who may be familiar to some of you thanks to this little HBO series called Game of Thrones. Apart from channelling the Commander of the Unsullied, aka Grey Worm, on GoT, Anderson has been making music as Raleigh Ritchie since 2013. His three EPs (The Middle Child, Black and Blue and Black and Blue Point Two) received moderate attention from the media, but it wasn't until the release of the excellent single The Greatest that his name -- or moniker -- was finally and firmly on the map.
Ritchie's debut LP You're a Man Now, Boy has been a long time coming. What's more, a total of 13 producers were involved in the process (Ritchie himself included), from master of futuristic R&B George Reid of AlunaGeorge to hip hop behemoths Mike Elizondo, DJ Dahi and Sounwave (the latter two previously worked with A-listers like Drake and Kendrick Lamar). On paper, this eclectic mix of collaborators may sound like a recipe for disaster -- a possible case of "too many cooks". In reality, though, this is one of the most forward-thinking R&B albums we've heard this year.
You're a Man Now, Boy kicks off with a bold statement of intent: "I wanna live forever/I wanna be your friend…/I wanna make some money, money, money/I wanna waste some time." Such is an opening line of Werld Is Mine, a one-note keyboard and clashing drum affair that plays like a mix of Childish Gambino's Sober and Amerie's One Thing. Next up, ballad Stronger Than Ever finds him at odds with the world at large. "'Cause I'm a big boy an adult now or nearly/If I pull the wool back from my eyes I can see clearly," he sings, "The world is at my feet and I am standing on the ceiling/And I fall, fall, fall, when it all comes down."
The themes of maturity and "me against the world" run consistently throughout the record. On I Can Change and Young & Stupid, he sings about needing "to be seen as a little bit more mature" and how he's "gonna live by the gun and die when ready", while on jaunty The Greatest, he embraces the ennui of life ("Life is boring, and we can barely afford it"), fully aware of his fate ("When we're old men, we'll be lost/Doing our rounds of paying the cost"). Romance appears, too, on Never Better and the record's biggest standout, Cowards.
Although some of the tracks have previously appeared on Ritchie's EPs, they come together nicely on You're a Man Now, Boy. Dealing with growth and realities with playful honesty, this is an album that keeps the listener engaged throughout, thanks to a dozen producers who somehow managed to incorporate their own personal quirks while keeping the production fresh and cohesive.
THE PLAYLIST
Yellow Fang/ Morning
Homegrown indie-rock trio Yellow Fang have done their bit to celebrate Record Store Day last month with Morning. Released in collaboration with Hiroshima-based label Stereo Records, the song kicks off with a growl of electric guitar before picking up the pace with the drone-like guitar line reminiscent of Brooklyn rockers like DIIV and Beach Fossils. A spoken Japanese line towards the end of the song is a bit random, but overall this is perhaps the most polished track we've heard from the girls to date.
will.i.am (featuring Nicole Scherzinger)/ Mona Lisa Smile
Bizarre collaborations keep rolling in and here's the latest one to add to the roster. In association with the iconic Louvre Museum, the Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has released a video for Mona Lisa Smile, a reinterpretation of the song Mona Lisa Smile that originally appeared on his 2013 album #willpower. The song features former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger (whose talent is mostly relegated to vocalising operatically), and is part of a 12-minute documentary called will.i.am at the Louvre launched last month.
Cornershop (featuring The Mike Flowers Pops)/ Born Disco; Died Heavy Metal
Oh, wow, there is a lot to unpack here. Firstly, Cornershop are apparently still at it after having subjected the world to their abominable 1997 one-hit wonder Brimful of Asha. Secondly, they've had this brilliant idea of teaming up with The Mike Flowers Pops, who had the audacity to give us the lounge-y cover of Oasis' Wonderwall back in the mid '90s. And, finally, don't even get us started on the use of semicolon in the song title. As for the track itself, it's a schizophrenic mishmash of punk, grunge and alt-rock with a shouty line that needlessly proclaims, "I used to like the Bee Gees now into the Purple". Excuse us while we go lie down.
Cyndi Lauper/ Funnel of Love
The Girls Just Wanna Have Fun singer has gone country on her 11th studio album, Detour. Originally recorded by Wanda Jackson, rockabilly classic Funnel of Love gets an update here by way of Lauper's signature rasp. Nothing too innovative, but it's full of fun and playful personality. The album will feature Lauper's interpretations of early country classics like Dorothy Moore's Misty Blue, Patsy Cline's Walkin' After Midnight and Harlan Howard's Heartaches by the Number.
Birdy/ Wild Horses
"I'm a dreamer/But it's hard to sleep when your head's not in it," confesses British singer-songwriter Birdy on Wild Horses, the second cut from her third studio album, Beautiful Lies. The ballad tells the story of empowerment and how one must find the strength to move on following the breakdown of a relationship. "I will survive and be the one who's stronger/I will not beg you to stay," she asserts with her falsetto in the chorus, "I will move on and you should know I mean it/Wild horses run in me."
