“Leon”

Leon Bridges is back at it with his brand new album, “Leon,” a long-play record released on October 4th, 2024. With this new album, the American soul and jazz singer, songwriter, and record producer changes his sound once more, this time nearly switching genres completely and giving his fans a taste of a brand new Leon Bridges.

The opening track, “When a Man Cries”, is an epic feeling song resembling that of a movie intro. The vocal cadence is incredibly jazzy, but the instrumentation is reminiscent of an Adele song. Bridges transitions from a slow and deep vocal style to a heavy chorus with plenty of ambient drums to give it that mountain-driving feel. The next song, “That’s What I Love,” brings a similar piano-driven approach. The song does not truly pick up in intensity but rather acts like a sort of ballad that adds depth to the intro yet not to the entirety of the album. Overall, the first few songs did not stick out nearly as much as he usually makes them, but the mellow introduction does not particularly bore the listener either.

And then it all changes. While some may have hoped for a sort of soul-driven vocal performance-filled album, “Laredo” throws that out the window. A smooth-rolling track, “Laredo” brings a much more country-styled feel to the table. Instead of his typical Rhodes chords and slap basses, Bridges opts for a raw acoustic guitar with country-pop drums, turning the tide into an upbeat dance tune. Still, nothing is too harsh on this song. The smoothness of the production is enviable, and as in most of Bridges’s works, it is executed nicely. The bridges and choruses feel almost like an ode to Latin music with the flow and flair of his cadence–which is not surprising, considering the song is named after a Texan town on the border of Mexico.

Although it does not ruin the album, “Panther City” is honestly just weird, and the storytelling feels a little forced and over-complicated. Although the piece is descriptive, it is sometimes best to leave some of the story up to the listener’s interpretation. By keeping the story vague, the listener can resonate with the lyrics and take home a meaning of their own. Evidently, that is not the goal of every song that an artist has, but in the case of “Panther City,” it almost just feels like he overshared some obscure experiences that make no sense to anyone else.

Tracks five through seven do not really stand out at all, with five being a simple pop song that evokes little response, six being a mellow vocal performance with an admittingly impressive range, and seven being mostly a skit.

It is track eight, “Never Satisfied” that picks the album back up, reminding me a lot of Bill Withers’s style of instrumental use and vocal patterns. This concept carries on to the next few songs. Here, Bridges has turned to a softer tone of Bill Withers with a strong mix of country. 

The rest of the songs on the album have a feel-good energy to them that is enjoyable. When we think of music, we tend to picture exact portraits of situations we could be in with that song playing in the background like a movie. “Can’t Have It All” elicits the image of being on a Texas ranch and watching children play baseball on the field. Unfortunately, the remaining few songs hold little significance in my opinion of the album. It seemed like the generic type of songs from this genre that Bridges was going for.

Leon Bridges decided to deliver something a little out of his comfort zone this time around, but it was nothing that he and his fans would not be proud of. The epic-sounding tracks mixed with a country-pop-jazz genre style show that Bridges can produce good quality music with much diversity in his sound. One thing that gets people bored is the same track over, and over, and over again. Not that he completely shifted away from his past projects and their respective styles, but he surely takes a step in another direction. Though this is not the best of Leon Bridges’ projects, it most certainly works.