It's February, which means for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere it's cold, wet, windy, and mildly depressing. Couple this with the fact that we're in still in the grips of a global pandemic, and it's not the most cheery of times. Last summer was a restricted one, and the usual joys of holiday sun, summer parties and late night fun were mostly replaced with social distancing, lockdowns and zoom calls. This winter, the memories of the glorious summer are from a year and a half ago. Now though, thanks to the hard work of so many, we can start to look forward to what will hopefully be a better summer. It's also a great time to get some new summer tunes ready, and Stay Together, the latest single by the up-and-coming Lawson J, is a perfect pick for the playlist.
Lawson J is a singer-songwriter and producer who for the last few years has been forging a style that combines classic soul influences such as Tracey Chapman and Marvin Gaye, contemporary sounds from the likes of Drake and Bruno Mars, and the bedroom production values of modern indie R'n'B. Stay Together is his third single following on from the funky pop of Ahi Aye, and the thematically powerful Maria. It's a short, sweet romantic summer tune that fits excellently into the current pop music zeitgeist, combining subtle layers of R'n'B, EDM and afrobeat with an immediately catchy and memorable hook.
Stay Together bears many similarities to recent chart hits, and you could quite easily hear this track being sung by Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes or even someone more established like Ne-Yo. There's something very refreshing though about an artist who genuinely writes and performs their own songs without vast amounts of outside interference. In a world where the pop music default is to hire multiple songwriters for every track (and often it's the same ones) there has become an increasingly obvious musical homogony. To hear an artist like Lawson J compose his works unilaterally might make only a subtle difference, but it still has a big impact on the song. There is an honesty and an intimate connection between the composition and the performance on Stay Together which you rarely achieve when pop songs are written by focus group.
For all it's lyrical themes of summer romance and the disappointment of having to leave someone behind, ultimately Stay Together is a bouncy, fun and absorbing track that will be very easy to dance to come the summer. My only real criticism is that it simply isn't long enough. Not that you need longer than two and half minutes to make a fine pop song, but sometimes a track feels like it hasn't quite reached it's peak. By the end of Stay Together it feels as though there could have been another dynamic development, a bridge or a middle eight perhaps, that would really have elevated it to the next level. Having said that, it's brevity does make you want to play it over and over again, so perhaps it's not such a bad thing.
Lawson J is clearly a very talented artist and in Stay Together he has single-handedly written, produced and performed a song that is the equal of many recent chart successes. Stay Together also shows ambition and potential, and if this is only the beginning then Lawson J has a hugely promising future in pop music.
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