No matter how much soul is in an album or a project it can still be defined as alternative. That’s why this title is so fitting for the Michigan singer called JMSN (pronounced Jameson). Fittingly like a lot of other artists such as the members of Griselda from the Joe Budden Podcast, where he was played as Joe’s sleeper pick. Instantly after hearing the song “Real Thing” you can just hear the talent coming from JMSN.
With six albums and two EP’s under his belt you can tell that he has been doing this for over a decade, since the mid 2000’s. He has established himself as a great singer and has been featured in many genre’s including hip-hop where he was on The Game’s “Jesus Piece” album on the track “Pray”. I still have much to learn about JMSN and I’m excited about that because he’s a dope artist that makes amazing calm and soothing music if that’s that you’re looking for.
Since I’m still learning about the artist I will focus more on the music. When I first heard “Real Thing” I replayed it like 5 times on the podcast before I searched it myself. When I did i was pleasantly surprised on how much I loved the album. It was very well put together and sounded amazing sonically mixed with his voice it was the perfect night album, or midnight drive album. Although i’ve never heard of JMSN before, or at least to my knowledge I instantly like it and listened to his project and 6lack’s back and forth multiple times. I didn't even think about going back and listening to his older work because I was so in love with this album that it was the only thing I wanted to play and only recently went back to listen to “Whatever Makes U Happy” which is a shorter project but is in the same boat as “Velvet” a calm album but makes an impact when you hear it. If you need an artist to listen to when you simply want to relax to and have a calm day this is it and includes all his projects.
Instruments are a huge part of his style and it is a pleasure to see considering a lot of projects use electronic appliances, which is not a knock on them as you can make amazing music with it, it’s just that it’s very noticeable when you hear regular acoustics instead. This album gave me the feeling similar to when I first heard “Nostalgia Ultra” by Frank Ocean, it makes you feel good even if the subject matter may be a little somber he does it in a way that can change that.
STANDOUT TRACKS
- “LEVY”
- “TALK IS CHEAP”
- “INFERNO”
- ★ “REAL THING”
- “SO BADLY”
