James Patrick Morgan - Art + Work =
Love
The EP release from James Patrick
Morgan, Art + Work = Love, is a stunning opener to Morgan’s career as something
like a musical polymath. You can’t pigeonhole him into one particular style.
Morgan has a strong enough voice to inhabit a rock musical texture, but he also
has the chops to pull of soul or R&B influenced tracks, pop songs, and
hard-charging singer/songwriter material. Despite the plethora of influences,
nothing comes across too cluttered and there’s a clarity of intent picking up
with the first track and carrying the entire release. Morgan’s vocals are
vibrant and suggest he has a strong stage presence backed up by the skills
needed to make live performances pay off. Art + Work = Love comes out of the
starting gate with a lot of heart and a little attitude and, while he alters
his approach from song to song, it never loses any of its spirit and energy
along the way.
It sets the bar high from the start.
“Expected” has overall quality that any performer, at any level, would be proud
to feature on a release. It’s jaunty groove makes it a perfect opener and
Morgan’s clearly hot to sing it. He artfully tumbles through the lyrics, never
stumbling over his phrasing, and brings home the lyric’s situation with eyebrow
arching clarity. It’s a winning track and all around charismatic. There’s a
rousing quality to “Alone” that Morgan and his collaborators play just right. The
keyboards help propel the song along at a brisk enough pace without ever
rushing its development. It’s one of Art + Work = Love’s more mainstream
moments, but it’s never so poppy that serious music fans will reject it; quite
the opposite. If anything, they will be impressed at how substantive it really
is. Melody distinguishes a lot of what Morgan does and few songs show that
better than “Sign Language”. The brief piano introduction is soon fleshed out
further by compelling drums and strong acoustic guitar playing. It’s
fascinating being able to hear glimpses in each song of its birth; it’s easy to
imagine that many of these cuts began with a single guy working out the initial
structure on acoustic between building onto it in the studio.
“Right Mistakes” may be the album’s
best song. It doesn’t have the same energy as the opener, but it’s an overall
more thoughtful and considered bit of songwriting that Morgan clearly goes all
out to elevate with his shattering vocal. The guitars working their way through
this song hold everything together musically and do so quite nicely. His cover
version of “Fly Like an Eagle” seems like a gift to his fans. He does a
fantastic job refurbishing this Steve Miller classic for a modern audience
without ever losing its connection to the original’s spirit. Despite this not
being an original, it still reveals many of the same moves making the earlier
songs so special. James Patrick Morgan is a risk taker – he isn’t afraid to
reach out for his audience and lay himself bare to connect with the crowd. This
is an EP that connects solidly with its intended listeners and should appeal to
a broad based cross section of music fans.
9 out of 10 stars
Scott Wigley
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