Luke James – I Want You
Great voice, boringly ordinary pop star name. Work on that.
[Video][Website]
[6.45]
John Seroff: Tevin Campbell-meets-Kirk Franklin 5.0, which is not a diss to Tevin or Kirk or Luke or anyone who enjoys any of the above; it’s just a reminder that whatever thrills may be garnered here are readily available in an array of other wrappers with minimal nutritional difference and a longer shelf life.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Those falsetto leaps bring echoes of Johnny Adams. Comparing the debut effort of a Danja protégé to one of popular music’s greatest singers is, obviously, a bit of an unfair comparison. Regardless, James has one hell of a technique at his disposal. The falsetto here, though, does differ from the ones the Tan Canary once deployed… Adams landed those jumps as a basket case, ragged with desperation. Contrast his approach with that of James, who puts across a vision of the dream achieved: the chart equivalent of this picture. Just check that video! So much eye-closing and arm extension, his chest going taut and then slack — a time-lapse version of the song structure. But for all James’ vocal strength, Kadis and Sean’s production choices are terrified of drowning him out. Only the drum machine and some terrible backmasked cymbals get any kind of a supporting role. Tragically (for my love of maximalism, anyway), the piano and other vocalists are way down in the mix for crucial stretches. Somewhere in between these sonic bounds lies the orthian sax sample; one assumes the real deal would have been too quiet-storm, scotching a potential crossover. No matter. This song will impel a lot of cars to pull off the road.
[6]
Anthony Easton: I always kind of admire people who sustain a falsetto for so long, and for people who have the range that James shows here. That said, the admiration would go further if his voice matched the musical cues brought forth in the lyrics, or even if the musical cues moved beyond cliches, or at least recognized that cliches were there to carry some of the weight of the music. As it is, it collapses like a bad soufflé.
[3]
Sabina Tang: Karaoke bar tragedy for years to come, this one. That high note is irresistable, the same way people go off the “and IIIIIIIIIIII will-all-ways LOOOOOOOOOVE yoooooooou” cliff like lemmings. How can one help physically mirroring such pure condensed joy?
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: Imagine if his mentor Beyonce sang this. You’re imagining “1+1,” which is not bad to imagine at all! Maybe this can be “1+0.5.”
[7]
Iain Mew: I have listened to this seven times, and I can remember precisely nothing about it apart from the “yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou” which is shooting for Alicia Keys but ends up more One Direction.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Lookit the sweat on his brow! Since I regard falsetto in the wrong larynx as expendable as a Steve Vai solo, I found more enjoyment in the hip-hop-hoorays or whatever after he realizes his heart can dance. Anyway, this is what falsetto on a contemporary track should sound like.
[6]
Michaela Drapes: In lesser hands, the squeaky-clean throwback-soul-meets-Prince trope would be an utter disaster, but Mr. James has the chops and the charm to carry this minimal, falsetto-charged ballad to fantastic heights. Repeated listens rewards with similarly delightful bits in the backing track: subtle, autotuned breezes and itty bitty harps!
[9]
Jonathan Bogart: Okay, sure, I’m a sucker for falsetto, for stirring songs called “I Want You,” for nice handsome middle-class black men singing songs that aspire to classicism and would have been just as tasteful and just as out of step with contemporary R&B ten years ago, or twenty, as they are today. The week that D’Angelo has resurfaced, I can see the point of not wanting to accept any imitations. On the other hand, that falsetto.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: That’s one impressive set of pipes, and for once, employed in the service of a good song. Having not heard anything from James before, this suggests innumerable directions he could be successful in; he croons beautifully, his falsetto is a release of such power that “orgasmic” would only be a slight exaggeration and you imagine he’d have no technical trouble debasing himself and doing R&B pop bangers. So I guess I like this as much as I could like a shape-shifting, ultra-smooth jam from a one-man Boyz II Men, which is quite a lot.
[8]
Alex Ostroff: The glorious falsetto and the earnest sweetness and the background ‘HEY!’s are more than enough reason to love this. (It certainly doesn’t hurt that Luke James is a total babe. R&B’s been in need of a new heartthrob for a while, because fuckin’ Drake? No.) The real surprise is that Danja is behind the boards. Don’t get me wrong – I love Danja’s production from FutureSexLoveSounds all the way down to Blackout. Even so, I had no idea that he had something like this in him. Plenty of space for Luke to do his thing, barbershop quartet harmonies and exquisite detailwork in the background. Between the touches of harp and twinkles and squiggles and chimes, there haven’t been this many delightful noises inobtrusively providing support in a song since “Say My Name.”
[9]