Just For You is a great example of where modern mainstream music is today, though the term mainstream might undermine just how good the music is. For a long time, music fell into neat demarcations, it was tribal, it was pop, or rock, or hip-hop or some other neatly defined genre. King Wizard is representative of a new breed of creative, one who doesn’t adhere to the rule book, or is at least smart and switched on enough to know which rules can be bent, broken or ignored altogether.
Take a song such as I Actually Can’t Swim, the beats are slow, dance-fuelled and sultry, the vocals stand equidistance between pop singing and dexterous, melodic hip-hop and the whole thing speaks of where music is going rather than where it has been.
Eyes on Me is a gorgeously smooth pop-rock groover, Remember December is an understated upbeat ballad (if such a thing is possible) that reappears as a funky acoustic number as a bonus track and Torn Between The 2 takes 80’s synth vibes and blends them with modern urban pop and nu-soul.
It’s a great album, not just because it is filled with great songs but as an indicator of where modern music is at and, more importantly, as a signpost to where it is headed.
