While on the surface, it seems as though the biggest push and most obvious tracks one would gravitate to initially would be the three you can stream here — namely “Sanctuary,” “Shine Through It,” and “Love Makes You Beautiful,” I’d encourage interested listeners to dig further into the album to find the few truly hidden gems like “War,” “I Remember When,” and “Spanish Love Affair.”
So in the end, the album is a toss-up and while to The Times, Howard shared his concern that he didn’t “know if… his own people… will hear it right away,” ultimately, I’d say to look beyond race, class, and gender to advise everyone to listen a bit harder and decide which tracks you’re drawn in by yourself, even if it means flipping the track order around in iTunes.
Track Listing
1. “Love Makes You Beautiful”
2. “Shine Through It”
3. “Mr. Johnson's Lawn”
4. “Sanctuary”
5. “No. 1 Fan”
6. “Spanish Love Affair”
7. “ Plenty”
8. “I Remember When”
9. “It's all Game”
10. “She was Mine”
11. “War”
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