Jonathan Emile Releases New Music 

“Savanna,” the second song in the tracklist of Jonathan Emile’s new LP Spaces-in-Between, doesn’t get more than two seconds into its running time before it’s got us swinging our hips to its funky groove, but as is the case with the vast majority of its counterparts on the album, listeners will have to hear the entire song through to fully appreciate its surprising grandeur and unassumingly evocative textures. In tracks like this, and more prominently in the lead single “Try a Likkle More,” Emile’s voice is a catalyst for all of the emotions that the instruments he lords over can’t completely convey, and in the pristine harmonies they forge together, we don’t just gain better insight into the scope of his artistry – we actually dig into a side of modern reggae that hasn’t been shown as much love by other artists as it is on this occasion.

URL: https://www.jonathanemile.com/

Chanda T. Holmes drops by for a little fun in “Liberation” that definitely enhances the sway of the trip-hop-esque groove centered in the eye of the song’s elaborately rhythmic storm, but next to “Babylon Is Falling – 3.0,” I don’t believe it has quite as much melodic thunder to boast. “Keep on Fighting” sets the tone for everything that follows at the start of Spaces-in-Between, and though it’s stained with an angst-ridden undertow that couldn’t be much more of antithesis to the easygoing beach bum that is “Rock & Come Over,” the two don’t make for strange companions in this album at all – the opposite, truth be told. From Ezra Lewis’ “More Than You Know” to the swelling beats of a psychedelic-tinged “Emptiness,” there are plenty of aesthetical oddities here, and none of them would I qualify as being even close to experimentally excessive.

SHAZAM: https://www.shazam.com/track/499690878/try-a-likkle-more

Jonathan Emile captures the essence of a solemn singer/songwriter’s signature harmony in the acoustic-powered “Moses” as well as he brings iconic reggae stars like Bob Marley to mind in “Canopy,” and seemingly no matter where we look and listen in Spaces-in-Between, he’s making music that demands a reaction out of even the most devoted of wallflowers. He’s put some amazing work on tape in the past, but as far as I’m concerned, this is the document in his discography he should be most proud of.

Samuel Pratt