Brandon Williams – The Love Factor
Albums like Brandon Williams’ The Love Factor often have a revelatory feel. Listeners will be treated to collaborations that bring together well-known performers or they’ll be introduced to emerging artists, and some of those up and coming artists may have surnames that resonate with soul music fans. The project will include numbers where an original track gets adorned with a classic style.
With The Love Factor, the Detroit native Williams creates a project that contains all of these elements, and in that way this project is similar in outlook to his 2014 work XII. Williams is musician, songwriter and producer who operates in a vein similar to legends like Quincy Jones, Norman Connors and George Duke. He writes original material or cover songs that are lyrical, vivid and are an amalgam of R&B, jazz and recent years, hip-hop.
The Love Factor contains higher tempo cuts such as “Don’t Give Up on Love” (Eric Roberson) and “In Their Shoes” (Matt Cuson) that use a funk infused bass lines, and tight, harmonized horn play to draw the steppers to the floor, while “Godsend” is a jazz infused, atmospheric number where harmonized vocals fuse with improvisation on the piano and saxophone.
The Love Factor sports a wealth of ballads for those looking to get a little closer on the dance floor, as well as off. Brian McKnight, Jr. and Alex Isley do musical dads Brian McKnight, Sr. and Ernie Isley proud on “In Love” and “Say You Love Me,” while “Deeper,” with an arrangement that serves as an homage to New Jack Swing balladry and tight backing vocals that recall the Boyz 2 Men, will fall sweetly on the ears of the children of the 1990s. Meanwhile, fans of the Great American Songbook get a lush rendition of “Love Dance” that features swelling strings interspersed with deft piano work, the soprano vocals of Artia Lockett and the appropriately understated bass work of Marcus Miller.
From beginning to end and at a variety of tempos The Love Factor is a record that satisfies those with a romantic itch to scratch. Years in the making for Williams, it is the type of album that’s tough to find in 2019, but is incredibly satisfying when discovered. Recommended.
By Howard Dukes