Howard’s tremendous versatility and range as an actor is his main strength vocally. From sweetly singing the opening track “Love Makes You Beautiful” to becoming far more playful with “Mr. Johnson’s Lawn,” he turns into a suave would-be player on a few tracks before conquering the album’s most superior track, the final, epic “War,” in which he goes from singing to growling within a moment, completely in sync with the driving Broadway-worthy structure.
A few other vocal highlights include the pretty “Sanctuary” which the press release noted was inspired by a “chance meeting with Seal and Heidi Klum.” His voice does seem to recall Seal’s at times amidst a breathy female chorus along with the retro Paul Simon and James Taylor-like 70’s sounding “I Remember When,” as he waxes nostalgic about childhood memories.
Additionally, he uses the album as a near confessional in places. He relates both the unraveling of his marriage in the far too crowded lyrics that comprise “No. 1 Fan,” which he said he wrote “as a stalker” watching his ex “come home from a date after we divorced,” as well as the temptations that probably contributed to the end of love in “Plenty.”
And while the positivity and clever arranging of “Love Makes You Beautiful” and “Shine Through It,” make one forgive the clichéd and hokey lyrics (that do show up here and there throughout the entire disc), I was far more taken in by the largely instrumental tracks “Spanish Love Affair” and “It’s All Game,” which works as a phenomenal showcase for Howard and his co-arranger, Miles Mosley.
Although initially he’d aspired to become a physicist as a boy growing up in Cleveland, it’s in these alternately delicate and seductive compositions that we really see the talent of Howard and get a sense of the young boy who was first introduced to music by his great-grandmother Minnie Gentry, a fellow actor and musician. In an NPR interview, Howard shares that “she would make me sit down at the piano and would teach me the relationship between A and D and G and C, why they were best friends, why they were relatives. She talked to me about music in terms of family, so it’s become part of my family.” And Howard blends his “musical” family together with his real one as his daughter contributes to “Love Makes You Beautiful” via a “spoken passage… recorded over the telephone” and his son “sang backup vocals” on “Shine Through It.”
Article comments
1 - Delreco Harris
First I want to say I really appreciated this review. So many other reviews have been so harsh and one sided/ close minded. Honestly when I first listened to the cd, I did not like it, but it was not because it sounded bad, but it was because I had others with me that were pointing out the differences as if they were negatives, as a result clouding my artistic judgement. As a matter of fact I am finishing up listening to the cd as I type this comment. This time I'm alone. You truly captured every critique I had down to the comment about "No.1 Fan" having too many words forced into the track. As an artist, i love the album. Sure there are some things that could be worked on, and the solution only comes from finishing the first project. The second project will be more paced. This one as many first albums reflects his passion for music, and his excitement with finishing a project. The arrangements are amazing. I personally love the fact that the tracks are so different from one to another. The album is all over the place, and that is exactly what makes it beautiful to me. I sometimes do the exact same, as a matter of fact, I've released a Gospel album, R&B album, and a Rap album lol. Sometimes we need to be out of order in order to get in order. All in all, this probably the realest review I've ever read about anything. The negatives were stated and explained, the positives were stated and explained, and I feel that if more reviews were constructed in this manor, more artists would accept and learn more from them. Well done.
2 - Jen
Hi Delreco,
Thank you so much first for reading the piece and for your amazingly kind and thoughtful feedback. I'm incredibly humbled and flattered. Having been a film critic and scholar for more than a decade, this is the first year I started reviewing music and I tried to bring the same approach to music writing. My reviews can be pretty lengthy and they're not for everyone (lol!) but I love the arts so much and have a tremendous respect for the craftsmanship involved in releasing something that I like to try to evaluate things objectively and using a storytelling approach (if/when possible). It's only fair to the artist who puts their work out there for us to be respectful and complete in return. So this being said, it's incredibly gratifying to read your comments and you make some really valid points about Mr. Howard's beautiful experimentation which you're right-- cannot be summed up in just 300 words or something like that.
Good luck with your own musical endeavors and kudos on trying out different genres-- it shows great ambition and talent and that's wonderful to try and discover what you truly enjoy! Just like, I'm starting to learn it's equally fun to write about other topics aside from film and I'm very happy there's an audience who takes the time to read and consider them.
Thanks again and take care.
- Jen