Jalen Ngonda - Come Around and Love Me (LP)

Artists like Jalen Ngonda come around once in a lifetime, so it is our privilege and distinct pleasure to announce the release of his debut album, Come Around and Love Me.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Jalen perform live knows that he is one of the most captivating performers on today's soul scene. His voice, equal parts raw feeling and elegance, exudes confdence and charm - disarming packed rooms of rowdy concert goers, leaving them silent as they hold fast to every syllable sung.

Plans for the album were struck just months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down. Notwithstanding, Jalen eventually made it to Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, NY where he began writing and recording with the help of producer/arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito (both members of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires) and a crack team of a-list musicians from the Daptone family. The team skilfully blends heavy arrangements and introspective lyrics with Motown sophistication, leaving the listener in a blissful wash of wonderment.

Jalen has been writing songs since he was 14, and his compositions are also very much of these times. He explains: "I love music from the 20th century - I listen to it all the time, but I'm in this world and the 21st century. ...to a stranger, I'd describe my music as modern soul and R&B, while trying to ft in the Beach Boys and the Beatles somewhere in between." Come Around and Love Me reveals how he creates a classic approach that is rooted in the sounds of revered pioneers, without falling into imitation - leaving no doubt that Jalen will continue to shine within the superlative, timeless musical tradition that is Daptone's hallmark.

Now it's your turn to come around and love one of the finest soul albums of the decade.

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Tracklist:

1. Come Around and Love Me
2. If You Don't Want My Love
3. Lost
4. That's All I Wanted From You
5. Please Show Me
6. Just Like You Used To
7. What a Difference She Made
8. Give Me Another Day
9. So Glad I Found You
10.It Takes a Fool
11. Rapture