Marlon Williams – My Boy
On My Boy, Marlon Williams has a little more pep in
his step than on previous outings. It may not be the equivalent of an ANOHNI
going disco revelation, but to his credit, he got the voice right. Those two albums
are still very different, but what Williams does manage to capture, more than
on any other album he’s released, is jubilance. As a New Zealander, Williams
has always had more than a surprisingly adept knack for country music, and when
flexing his baritone in his cavernous and minimalist production, he was able to
elicit his own brand of isolated mysticism. That croon is still evident on his
newest album, but what’s new is his seemingly ineffable swagger.
Even on a track like “Princes Walk”, which attempts to
extricate his retro sheen in favor of something more melancholic, Williams can’t
help from injecting it with a celestial atmosphere that brings it closer to someone
like Dent May than to any of his previous work. Even the similarly mellow “Trips”
has a reverence that feels both regal and biting in a way he rarely divulges. Williams
expertly marries the disparate styles with an overarching, rich production, and
that binds the light, effortless pop tracks to the headier numbers while remaining
true to himself as the mouthpiece. The only real misstep comes on “Morning
Crystals”, where Williams, in his quest for to provide himself with more “fun”
songs to play on stage, kneecaps some stellar instrumentation and inspired
verses, with a chorus so inane and silly it threatens to torpedo the rest of
the album.
Instead, Williams smartly bookends the track with a couple
more cerebral cuts and focuses the audience’s attention on the album as a
whole. In that respect, My Boy is a success, an album that rebrands its
creator in a genuinely bold new way, something that is attempted often but is
rarely this effective. It may not be his strongest outing, but it’s easily his
most rousing.
~7.0
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