Review Summary: This is gonna get him so much tail....too bad that doesn't come with respect.
Ahh…Jonny Craig. The soulful singer has been stringing bands along like cheap girlfriends for the better part of a decade now. Each time promises are made of staying for the long haul, through thick and thin, for better or for worse, yet unfortunately consistently all go unfulfilled. He does however have his solo outlet as an always available avenue of musical discharge but with his second solo outing,
Find What You Love and Let It Kill You, Mr. Craig’s discharge this go round results in an awkward feeling of ineptitude and boredom for the listener.
What Craig doesn’t realize is that it takes more than some synth pads, drumming, and vocal runs to make a good R&B album. One simply has to look at the acronym,
Rhythm and
Blues, to make a pretty educated guess that there has to be some feeling involved and said feeling should flow with the rhythm of the music.
Find What You Love and Let It Kill You showcases no feeling outside of the inherent sound of the vocals. Every song is structured the same both musically and vocally with no apparent motive other than to show how good Jonny Craig can sing. And to his credit the man hasn’t lost his edge from a technical standpoint, his vocal control is on point and he still sounds pleasing to the ear but every song sounds
exactly the same. With the exception of a random rap feature in the long-awaited fifth installment of the “I Still Feel Her” series, seemingly every part of every song is completely interchangeable with one another.
The reason this is stems from the lack of variety in the instrumentation, as mentioned before, 90% of the album consists of Jonny’s vocals, some light drumming, and synth pads all utilized with very little imagination. To add a little context, the arrangements, as boring as they are, wouldn’t be too shabby if done by some kid in his bedroom, but Craig has been in the scene for a while now and should rightly be expected to produce something with a little more variety then what is presented here. The lyrics are also typical Craig fare, girls and how he treats and feels about them. It serves to give the listener the feeling that
Find What You Love and Let It Kill You is just a means to an end for Craig to get laid.
Find What You Love and Let It Kill You does nothing to help Craig’s ailing reputation within the music community in which he works. The fact that he can sing his ass off is pretty well established and for the new listener, will serve as a nice treat. Underneath the sexy baritone however lies substance about as substantial as a wispy cloud and is just about as satisfying to listen to.
