Taylor McFerrin - Early Riser

Taylor McFerrin

Early Riser

2 June 2014

Brainfeeder

 

4 stars out of 5

 

 

How’s this for weird: one of the better records of the summer of 2014 featured a cameo by Mr. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” himself, Bobby McFerrin, and was created by his son, Taylor. Maybe it’s not so weird: Bobby was (is) a musical innovator, whose ten Grammy awards attest to a long career beyond one-hit wonder status (though I’ll be the first to admit that I, probably like most of you, know only the one tune). Taylor’s music is very different from his father’s—the son creates neo-soul impressionistic sketches, full of the cutting edge attitude of electronica and the abstraction of jazz.

 

When Taylor decides to sing over his compositions he has a delivery reminiscent of a shy Frank Ocean (“Florasia”), though more often than not he will let others sing instead, or leave the tracks without vocals altogether. His tracks are richly detailed but don’t come across as over-produced or tired, as one might expect from a record that took six years to record; rather, the tracks of Early Riser feel loose and alive. When his compositions approach a more conventional rock structure (“Place in My Heart”), they explore the intersection between the post-rock of Tortoise and the dream pop of His Name Is Alive. Taylor plays all of the instruments on half the tracks, and most of them on the rest. This is easy when you’re dealing with simple pop songs, but the complex and intricate jazz of Early Riser makes such a proposition a feat of heroism of Tom Jenkinson-like proportions. And, frankly, McFerrin nails it. (No, really, he does. That wasn’t irony.)

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger