Hannah Stokes Drops A Soul-Pop Opus
A fresh release from Hannah Stokes delivers a wonderfully lush blend of soul pop, R&B, and contemporary all rolled into one record that also brings out a lot of character and personality, which may be one of the biggest elements you end up getting attached to right from the start.
The Right Where I Belong album serves almost like chapters in the artist's life, and once you start diving in, you start realizing how detailed the lyrics can be in terms of having some great description, some emotional backbone, and coming from a place of honesty, which makes everything all the more authentic.
This is a record that absolutely comes right at you with a lot of that soul. It's rhythmically enticing, and the instrumentation and performances throughout the entire thing just wrap themselves around you and keep you right where they want to.
First of all, the bass lines throughout this record are almost everything. They take walks, they feed into that rhythm, they have a beautiful brightness and color, along with deep-rooted grooves to almost every single track, giving the whole release a very danceable underbelly.
The record also boasts an amazing jazz tonality to it as well because of all the natural instrumentation that comes into play. The guitar work is outstanding, and I think that is really where a lot of the jazz comes in, but some classic time signatures indicate the genre being a heavy-handed influence as well.
She also has a bit of a jazzy vocal approach. But an old-school one.
This is something I definitely dig. In her singing, there are a lot of influences that come into play, but she performs with passion and heart, a smooth, silky tonality that is very engulfing, but in a good way.
One of the other things that really grabs you in terms of the performance on this record is the energy level.
There's something special about how it all came together that puts you right there in the moment with the songs and makes it feel like everything was recorded live on the floor.
It feels like everyone was right there, feeding off of each other's energies, giving the songs this beautifully alive and breathing type of aesthetic.
This is also sort of a classic jazz thing.
Again, this is soul-pop. There's always this wonderfully contemporary pop coating over a lot of the songs, making way for catchy hooks here and there, memorable vocal melodies that bounce around in your brain for hours after songs have ended, and a natural knack for pop sensibility, overall.
The record introduces itself with the track called "Waste Time". This is an amazing single to introduce the record with, simply because it boasts some of the greatest staples that the album produces.
You have that really evident bass guitar shining through and giving a liveliness to everything; the percussion is outstanding. The drumming is amazing throughout this entire record, actually.
The drum performances on this album don't just sit in the pocket. They add that evident liveliness to a lot of the songs and let the aesthetics thrive and feed off of that.
Everyone on this record really understood the mission.
Anyway, that first track showcases a lot of the soulful vocal impact, her silky tonality, some amazing songwriting, and attention to detail when it comes to the tones of the instruments and the arrangement.
Even though several songs stick out as singles throughout this record, listening to the full album from start to finish is absolutely the only way to go.
I mentioned earlier that this thing felt almost like chapters in the artist's life.
It plays out like a book. You wouldn't skip chapters of a book. You don't want to skip songs on this record either.
Listening to the album as a whole gives you a wonderful experience, and there are more than a few surprises around its corners, giving way to something that has that freeing kind of smoothness, but a lot of flavorful soundscapes as well.
Some tracks are a little bit more driving than others. The drums may hit a little harder, the vocals may feel a little more bountiful, but it all comes together like puzzle pieces.
A record that clearly showcases an artist who gives pieces of herself in her music and obviously has an amazing time recording.
Listening to this album makes you want to go see it all live. It makes you want to go and see this whole record performed start to finish, live in your face.
This is simply because this amazing aesthetic and energy are captured so well on record.
There are certain tracks like landscapes that give off a more cinematic and powerfully emotional push, which adds different layers of depth and even texture to the album itself.
Again, the full record gives you a lot of honesty. The charismatic and unafraid sort of personality that's delivered throughout this release is unbound, and that's part of what makes it so addicting.
I would suggest listening to this one with headphones on because it's one of the best ways to soak in all the different layers that it gives off, and it's very easy to get engulfed in everything you're listening to that way.
I feel like that's what this is meant for. It's meant for you to be engulfed in someone else's life for a moment in time.
Diving into this album is an amazing escape. It can pull you away from wherever you are and whatever you're doing for a great little chunk of time, and that, to me, is like a gift.
So, pop some headphones on and dive into this record. It will definitely fill you with something special. A unique and bright blend of character, R&B, jazz, soul, pop, personality, vibrancy, and authenticity.
I loved this entire thing, and if you're a fan of music that makes you feel or makes you think, you will too.
