When I heard “Good By Now,” the single that was sent out to set the tone for his latest album, I knew that Jehry Robinson had something pretty special on the way. Well, here it is, Hella Highwater, but even that first taste didn’t prepare us quite for the giant creative steps he has taken here.
Once you get beyond that singles cool blends of skittering dance, infectious pop, and deft hip-hop, there is plenty more to revel in. “Marathon” is a groovesome slice of urban pop, but one soaked in bluesy sonics and shot through with celtic folk vibes, “Whiskey Water” is a heartfelt plea to the universe, a gorgeous balance of the understated and the anthemic, the spacious and the epic, and “Backwoods” takes his more mainstream, more chart-friendly, more accessible sound and runs it through bigger, rock and roll urges.
And that, in a nutshell, is what Jehry Robinson does so well; he hops genres, he blurs creative lines, he ignores the rules, and he takes no notice of musical demarcations. The sonic world is his playground. And it is only when you view the creative landscape in such a way, only when you are not weighed down with music history and market expectation, that you can make music that moves things forward. I mean, really move things forward.
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