Source: Love Levitates, by Louis Baker
I hate to make comparisons when I discover new artists, but I always do so. If Marvin Gaye spawned a musical lovechild who leans heavily towards jazz, this is the album that person would deliver. Does it seem fair to align Louis Baker with one of the most amazing voices in soul? If you’re a fan of R&B and neo-soul it could be considered blasphemy. Before you continue reading click play and browse through each track on this seven song EP.
I discovered Louis while listening to a Sy Smith channel streaming her new song Slide:
The beauty of streaming is the ability to discover music at any moment. When I heard Louis Baker, I ran home to push play on YouTube so my wife could listen to it. We’ve had an extended discussion on the lack of soul music being created by Black artists. Since Love Levitates didn’t have a picture of the artist, I assumed Louis was Black, lol. When I saw the live videos on YouTube I was like WTF?
I immediately fell into “blue-eyed soul” talk and my wife said, nah let that go. He doesn’t sound like Bobby Caldwell or Darryl Hall. He just sounds good. She’s right. He may be a White guy, but my initial inclination was to say he reminds me of Marvin (at times… especially in the ad libs and backing vocals) and I’m sticking with that. This album is perfect for date night in the fall. The temperature is just right. Open the moonroof or drop the top and skip to Track 6 and let Louis “Into Your Life”. When those horns hit at 1:10 don’t hesitate to say, I hear a bit of D’Angelo in there as well. Who knew a cat from New Zealand could make an album like this?
