We’re out and about, running errands large and small. As I discovered last week, SiriusXM’s Smokey’s Soul Town channel has transformed into Smokey’s Holiday Soul, where the proffered Yuletide joy is often tinged by Christmas cringe. I hop over as CarPlay during one such tinseled tune and click on a new addition to my library. “You’ll like this,” I tell Diane. She’s heard such claims from me before, of course, and knows that such promises sometimes fall short.
Come Around and Love Me is, as I write, a year-old album from Jalen Ngonda, who moved from Maryland to England a decade ago to study at Liverpool’s Institute for Performing Arts. I recognized his name while researching MT Jones, who I spotlighted a few days back, and rectified the mistake of never clicking play on this, his DapTone Records debut, the same day. The 11-song, 33-minute set kicks off with the tasty title cut, which includes several subtle and not-so-subtle nods to Marvin Gaye throughout.
But a year out is a year out. I wasn’t even sure I was going to spotlight Jones’ four-song EP, which was released in October, as ’tis the season for Remember December. I’ve a slew of self-indulgent posts to write. But the mood is right. The spirit’s up. We’re here tonight. That’s enough!
The songs that follow continue with the retro mood, tapping a variety of sources for inspiration—from the Temps to Four Tops to the Miracles to the Impressions, plus the Beatles and Beach Boys in spots, too. Sometimes, such as “Just Like You Used To,” the result comes across as a mash-up of such influences. Yet the songs ripple from the speakers with a breezy confidence that negates their origins.
My hunch is that some will hear the nods as overt, others covert, with the difference between the reactions being how well one knows the soul music of the long ago. But, truly, either/or doesn’t much matter. Ngonda and company—which includes producer-arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito from Charles Bradley’s Extraordinaires—pay tribute to the soul practitioners of the yore with each and every note. Hopefully, his (presumably) young fans will search out his idols.
Oh, and Diane? She liked what she heard, too.
(FYI, Ngonda offers a song-by-song breakdown of the album in this excellent Flood magazine piece.)
The Old Grey Cat 
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