JMSN – †Priscilla† (Preview)

Album Title : †Priscilla† 
Release Date : 1.11.12

1. Choices

2. Jameson

3. Alone

4. Do U Remember The Time

5. Somewhere

6. Hotel

7. Something

8. Fallin

9. Love & Pain

10. Fire

11. Jameson Pt. II

12. Runaway

13. Girl (I Used To Know) (Feat. Boldy James)

14. Let You Go

15. Lights

16. Nunca Se Sabra

So, JMSN’s new album is just days from release and I have managed to get my hands on the album thanks to his manager Brandon. Check out my first thoughts on the album after the jump:

This will be more of a preview rather than a review per se, but I can’t seem to find myself able to write a little account of the album without expressing my opinions. I wanted to be impartial and just write generally about the album but after my first listen I just can’t seem to hold myself back – this album is genuinely fantastic.

I was honestly expecting to hear an album that followed along the lines production-wise of his first two singles; “Hotel” and “Alone“, so you can understand that I was preparing to listen to an album that would probably get me all sad and depressed. But lo and behold, how wrong was I, the production is rich and layered and diverse throughout – it is masterfully produced by JMSN himself, for example Love & Pain infuses a saxophone amongst the the moody backdrop and JMSN’s hopeful lyrics. It’s a brilliant mixture, something that is so left-field yet follows along the lines of older ballads such as Wham’s “Careless Whisper“, albeit less flamboyantly (and rightly so) but the track then takes a modern approach and just explodes in the last half of the song. The point I’m trying to make is that the backdrop of which this album is set out in is incredible, this is a brilliantly produced album, a lot of people were making comparisons to The Weeknd’s work given the tone and nature of JMSN’s first two singles yet its so different to Abel’s work. Make no mistake, this is one of the best produced R&B projects I’ve heard in a while.

Lyrically JMSN is wordy and that’s a good thing, rather than being engulfed in a sea of melody like the other millions of generic R&B singers there are, you can actually understand what JMSN is saying. Some girl definitely hurt my dude and man is he waxing lyrical about it. The writing is top notch throughout and the singing is as good as it can be. JMSN can definitely hold a note and he does this throughout the whole album, he soars vocally in the highlight track “Do You Remember The Time” and man is the track “Something” amazing, he utilises his falsetto throughout the track and laments about something deep inside him that he just can’t seem to identify. “Something” to me is the highlight of the album, this is JMSN at his deepest and most personal, it feels almost intrusive to be listening to him. Something, that in this day and age where David Guetta is the go-to producer for R&B artists, is missing and JMSN is here to fill that void.

Finally, this album is certainly something. JMSN is a super talented artist and this album is just a stepping stone for him as bigger things will almost certainly come, almost every track here is strong and consistent throughout. The transitioning between tracks is great, it flows as if it is one long soliloquy and boy is it soulful. This is an artist who has genuinely put everything in this album – his heart and his soul, this is a musically rich and diverse listen that anyone who has suffered heartache can relate to. I urge you to get the album when it releases in just a few days, you will not be disappointed.