Expansive-minded retro-soul artist’s latest is a revealing survey of the places that have shaped him
For years, the conversation around Leon Bridges focused on his ability to channel bygone eras: the way his warm delivery recalled velvet-voiced singers from the Fifties and Sixties, how he appeared right at home on production that felt like it’d been piped in from Motown’s heyday. He became a kind of poster kid of nostalgia, constantly admired as an old soul seemingly trapped in the present day —a reminder of how much better things always appear in the rearview.
And then, after a while, that narrative started to feel tiresome. Bridges wasn’t a one-trick retro revivalist; he’s a 30-something year-old wide, hefty set of musical references and inspirations. He showed range and depth through left-field adventures, like his Texas Sun and Texas Moon EPs with the psych-inspired band Khruangbin. More and more, he pushed deeper into R&B, gospel, and rock, proving there was more to see.
His new album Leon might be the one that grounds him the most as an artist. It’s a revealing look at the places that shaped him as a musician out of Texas, teeming with imagery of the Rio Grande and Lone Star city nights. Perhaps because of the vintage pastiche, some of his past records — although beautiful — have felt distant and slightly removed from Bridges himself. Here, lurking in the music, there’s more emotional weight and personal intimacy: From the get, Bridges acknowledges male vulnerability with “When A Man Cries,” a sparse and unexpected opener that loses some of the glossy veneer of his early work.
“Panther City” strikes a balance between Bridges’ breezy smoothness with rough-edged memories and bits and pieces of growing up: The references include hot days and old Nintendo 64s and a father’s warning about a street filled with crackheads and prostitutes. It’s the kind of specificity that works, even when the arrangements are more placid. Some of the album’s more general love songs —“NA” and “You Ain’t The One,” for example — are less intriguing.
Bridges left the U.S. for a lot of this album, ostensibly to find new inspiration elsewhere. Much of it was recorded in Mexico City’s famed studio El Desierto, a change of pace that feels like it helped Bridges’ journey inward. That energy is strongest on“Peaceful Place,” where Bridges seems confident in this version of himself, and assures he’s exactly where he needs to be: “I found something no one can take away.”