Out this week from LRK Records is new long player, All I Ever Wonder which finds singer/songwriter Johnny Burgos effortlessly combine classic and neo-soul just in time for high summer with veteran producer Jeremy Page (known for his work with MF Doom) behind the console. Turns out the two of them have been trying to collaborate for some time and the stars have finally aligned. Brooklyn-native Burgos describes the LP as a, “journey of the soul that explores ego, insecurity, love, loss, survival, enlightenment and trusting,” – all the classic soul themes then – and the album demonstrates influences that run the gamut from Dilla to D’Angelo and drawing on R&B, hip-hop, funk, reggae and even salsa.
Opener Plays For Keeps finds Burgos lay down his Mr Smoothie-Chops gauntlet channeling D’Angelo and (from even further back in the mists of time) the seventies slowies of a certain Mr Stevie Wonder. The emotive Promise is funkier while Get Back rocks a Dilla-esque beat. The title track is another slowie that is a more overtly retro nod to the torch songs of yore, and the retro stylings continue with the chugging disco of Something’s Got To Give and of course closer and cover Old Man – here transformed from Neil Young’s folksy seventies original into a funkily rolling slice of super-chilled soul.
(Out June 28 on LRK Records)