Gary Clark Jr. - JPEG RAW
Blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. has come a long way since his debut in 2012, but I mean that in a good way. He started off as being touted as the next Jimi Hendrix with his masterful and soulful blues-rock guitarwork, but he went into more soul, hip-hop, and R&B sounds as his albums went on, ultimately becoming something more than just a blues man with an old soul. That’s the beauty of both the blues and music itself — it changes. Sometimes a good throwback artist comes around, such as Nat Myers whose take on acoustic / Delta blues is fantastic, but I love hearing artists grow. Hell, even if it doesn’t work, I can appreciate the vision. The new Capstan album was that way for me, but I still respect what they were doing.
As for Gary Clark Jr., his sound is really interesting, because I can’t quite say he’s a blues artist anymore, but that’s a good thing. His latest album, JPEG RAW, really runs the gamut of interesting sounds and ideas, and this album has elements of funk, rock, blues, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop. I’ve given this thing a handful of listens over the last week, despite it coming out a couple of months ago, and I really enjoy it overall. It does have a few small issues that don’t necessarily prevent me from saying it’s a top album of the year, but knock it down ever so slightly. The main issue I have is that the album doesn’t flow super well, at least as well as it should. The songs themselves are all quite good, but they don’t flow super well together, despite all fitting in the same handful of styles.
Part of is it that the album is around 54 minutes, so it’s a bit lengthy, at least compared to other stuff I’ve talked about recently. Its length isn’t bad, but it can be a lot sometimes. There are a lot of individual highlights, like the title track, “Hyperwave,” “What About The Children” with the legendary Stevie Wonder, and “Funk Witch U” with the also legendary George Clinton are all highlights. There’s nothing bad here, but with how many influences and ideas this album has, it can be a lot sometimes. It’s still quite good, and Gary Clark Jr. is an absolute guitar god, so it’s worth hearing if you want to see what he’s been up to within the last few years. I don’t know if it’ll be one of the best albums of the year for me, but it’s got some truly great stuff here.
