Los Angeles-based Joselyn Wilkinson is a bit up front about being self-affirming and positive and blessed with having amazing spirits in her life. Nevertheless, the lightly soothing soul/funk/world music she and her band have produced here is flawless and a little anodyne.
It is fashionable to mock the well-intentioned and blush for those who proclaim good to be better than bad. But in some cases the temptation is just so strong that the least I can do is draw your attention to my difficulty with this CD.
I have tried to reframe my listening by imagining this record being produced by a bunch of working class black kids in a northern English city. Surely I would be head over heels in love with it? Technically spot on, smooth and self assured it certainly is. And when the words sink in, they are, in general, worthy sentiments. Joselyn sings with a strong clear voice and there a distinctive catch that gives it a convincing soul sound.
But it doesn’t work for me. Platitudes, well worn musical devices, isolation from the dark side, contrived-sounding emotion, predictable musical excursions and disproportionate excess in the vocal track: each of these contribute to an insurmountable barrier between me and the music. It's music for a culture that is so alien to me that I can’t do it justice. Why do these perfectly good musicians take such care in recording vacuous pop songs with semi-literate lyrics?
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I try to think of someone who would like this. I try to imagine a radio station that would play it.
I fail.
I hear a phrase here, a guitar lick there, a bit of soulful bass. A trumpet and sax line. But none of it adds up. It’s the music of narcolepsy. "Everybody wanna be a star /You’re the star of my heart" Mainly I hear "numbers" and no songs.
Sorry Joselyn, I don’t get it. Track 10 "Greatest Music Never Heard" is a spoken sprawl of inelegant prose that has a strong ring of that real and powerful adolescent realisation that "I am uniquely aware .. of … of … EVERYTHING that truly matters." Like, wow, man. Let’s go into the studio and give it to the WORLD. Perversely, the world already knows.
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