Released:
Rating:
While ‘Human’ doesn’t brake the barriers of genre or style, it does capture a voice unlike most.
Label: Columbia
Released: 10th February 2017
Rating: ★★★
It’s been a long-time coming for Rag ‘N’ Bone Man. After years of grafting, creating and releasing his own music – the stars have seemed to align over the past 12 months, with ‘Human’ standing as a record primed on the cusp of record collections around the country. That sort of anticipation and pressure can be a real deal-breaker, but for Rag ‘N’ Bone Man – it may have just given him the direction and purpose to create an album that’ll take him into a legion of pop stars.
Mixing R’n’B, soul, hip-hop, jazz and blues into a potent cocktail of hook-packed success, Rags manages to make the step-up distinctly his own. The heart-grabbing immediacy of ‘Bitter End’ rings like an Adele hit in waiting, while ‘Skin’ rises from twisting depths into a soaring gospel powerhouse that’d squash a brick in a heartbeat. And that’s primely what Rag ‘N’ Bone Man delivers – all-conquering heart-on-your-sleeve heavyweights that are embellished and crackling with that raw grittiness that simmers through his voice at every turn. In the title track itself, he has an unstoppable beast that’ll be spun on repeat for years to come, with ‘Love You Any Less’, ‘As You Are’ and ‘Arrow’ all cracking with an original penchant for universal sights.
As ‘Die Easy’ finds Rag ‘N’ Bone Man closing out the record with an acapella ode stripped bare of any production or features – it’s that what pinpoints him out from the rest. While ‘Human’ doesn’t brake the barriers of genre or style, it does capture a voice unlike most. Where it goes from here, could be even bigger. Jamie Muir
