The Listening Room

Ashamed I've never listened to Jack Harlow. Just pressed play.

How would you describe Harlow to the ignorant, up to this point?

Through my first listen. Deserves another. My current feeling is that the songs are fantastic, but they'd be better served by another vocalist. Harlow's range is narrow and his melodies too basic to sit on top of such emotionally rich music. Curious if anyone else feels the same way.

Without any Jack Harlow context, you are 100% on point.

Was that sort of the expectation given his prior work? Is this an A for effort album?

Dipping back in. I think this album really suffers from a lack of hooks. Harlow’s vocals just can’t carry a decent melody alone. It feels like the best we get are volume dynamics and periodic harmonizing with a song’s chord progression. (Or maybe they wrote some of the backing to support Harlow’s voice and give it substance?) I really enjoy it as a listen and love the music. There’s no way it sticks around for me, though. There’s just not enough emotion with the lacking vocals. How’s everyone else feeling so far?

This reminds me quite a bit of Mac Miller's "Circles." So much that I checked to see if it was possibly produced by Jon Brion. (It was not)