(Self-released, digital)
Burlington trumpeter Connor Young puts his folk sounds to the test on his latest LP, From Me to You. Doing away with the heady jazz compositions that solidified his visionary status on albums past, Young ditched the band and added vocals to his one-man act, making a decisive shift in his sound.
From Me to You features 33 hearty tracks of beautifully plucked guitar ballads — a collection of partially rough, partially ready songs steeped in old-world swing. Melding Young’s personal experience with his musical sensibilities as a jazz composer and burgeoning singer-songwriter, the album exudes harmony in its formal arrangements and its overarching theme. While some tunes wax whimsical and others wane wistful, each song has its own distinct dreaminess. The result is a pastiche of acoustic tracks with swingy triplet feels; bouncy, close-knit horn arrangements; and well-crafted observations made into verse.
Young’s magnum opus begins with an intention-setting monologue over flighty taps on the six-string and a wild chorus of trumpet calls. Luckily, the disclaimer track delightfully combusts at the exact moment it starts to feel trite. While there is joviality across the album, Young attests in the opening track that the process of its creation was a much-needed and cathartic one. That fact is made apparent in the album’s two-hour run time. While the tracks move with a cool, assertive fluidity, the album’s production quality doesn’t always live up to the same high standards.
The slap-happy ditty “Thriftin'” carries substance beyond its charm, and the tongue-in-cheek “Bounty Signs” delivers social critique without feeling heavy or pretentious. Songs such as “Sage” and “Follow Your Heart” make too much of toeing the line between worn-out platitudes. However, Young successfully reworks familiar woes in “Catch That Train.” The album’s de facto opener proclaims, “It’s better to be lost than left behind / behind / leave it all behind.”
While tipping toward the nihilistic end of the existential spectrum, Young’s lyrics display a sleight of hand reminiscent of Cole Porter’s densely clever wordplay. In “Walk to Nowhere,” Young sings dapperly: “So come along / take a slice / of this sweet paradise / the Garden of Eden but twice as nice / don’t you wanna feel free / come walk to nowhere with me.”
Behind the mic, Young is a chameleon of cool, with a smooth baritone and soft delivery. The haunting blend of airiness and depth in his vocal timbre at times bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Jacob Collier and Nick Drake.
On “Wait for Me,” Young breezes through an up-tempo waltz with a compressed flow evocative of Steve Miller’s jazzier side. On the New Orleans-inspired number “Not a Care in the World,” Young croons melodic phrases with swagger and precision, channeling the jazz-pop cadence of a young Harry Connick Jr.
A masterwork of lyrical odes, existential laments and everything in between, From Me to You is an anthology of humble pop, early blues and hot club-style jazz tunes. It’s available on all major streaming services.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2024.
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