Dwele - Subject

“Neo-soul” has been promoted and dissected on video and in the music press for some time now, but never truly ascended to mainstream relevance. One must wonder if the studied “vintage”-ness of the sound is self-defeating in this sense; by striving to recreate the legendary sound of their musical forbears, do current artists prevent themselves from making genuinely new classics by being content with sonic simulation? Dwele’s latest album starts off like more of the same. The sound of crackly vinyl, the mid-tempo beats and soulful croon, the warm, live instrumentation – it’s all there, just as it is on releases by the already-crowded scene of D’Angelo wanabees. Yet somehow, Dwele manages to imbue his familiar-sounding material with a wealth of uniqueness. Whether on the Slum Village collaboration “Angel,” the hypnotic introduction “Poppa Yo,” or the lead-off single “Find A Way,” the songs take on a life of their own beyond their instantly recognizable roots. While a frustrating same-ness tends to set in over the course of 15 tracks, there always remains some intangible charm in the tracks to redeem Subject in the end. This disc isn’t going to take the new breed of soul singers truly mainstream, but it is a solid effort within the genre, and a must-buy for fans of vintage R&B and earthtoned retro hip-hop (Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, et al). [www.dwele.net]