Leon Bridges
Happiness Anytime
COLUMBIA
God bless Texan rhythm-and-blues (and something else entirely) vocalist Leon Bridges for always defying expectation. Though he started his career by jumping through the hoops of post-neo-soul like a less self-conscious John Legend on 2015’s Going Home, Bridges has moved and grooved forward to the sounds of (and partnership with) psychedelic instrumentalists Khruangbin, found inspiration in the diverse likes of Townes Van Zandt and The Isley Brothers, and even won a Best Traditional R&B GRAMMY for music that’s never been traditional in the least. “Why stop there?” must be the logic behind Bridges’ current post-country soul, then, teaming with Great Britain’s wettest of acid-jazz modernists: Jungle’s J Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto, who act as the soul singer’s producers and co-writers on Happiness Anytime.
From the echo-flexed, teardrop-percussive puckers throughout “Talk It Over,” the Fela-riffic and Kuti-lite “Light the Way,” the synth-souped-up “Your Love is Electric,” and the bossa-bopping mouthfeel of “All Day, All Night,” it’s clear that Bridges is headed for the London dancefloor, a dozen glasses of Pernod Black at the bar, and sprightly, swing-hearted fun all the way. Which is fine. Even when Bridges slows things down and does the heartsick, mopey Wilson/Otis/Marvin moan as he does throughout “Take My Hand,” there’s something oddly elevated about the proceedings, as if Jungle have provoked Leon to joy 24/7 (or “Tears of Joy,” as goes his gospely song of the same name), and nothing’s going to stop either of them in their pursuit of his happiness. After all, that’s what Jungle does: heals the pain, uplifts the downtrodden and the downtempo.
And Bridges’ vocals are totally committed to the bit, because what he does is get dedicatedly earnest and ruminative, no matter how weird things get. Happiness Anytime could’ve used some questions to be answered and doubt in their collective melodic and harmonic resolve, along with a few weird twitches in order for Bridges to hang his verbal aches and vocal pains upon. Instead, Bridges and Jungle create a chipper circumstance, a world of motion without slowing for emotion—something perhaps stated as Happiness Everytime.
