love / letters is the longer project from artist Font Leroy – a beautiful playlist that helps you make the most out of your day. Following the good vibes of marula, worlds collide brings a soulful swagger and a shoulder-swaying groove, then sleepless drives with a Corrine Bailey Rae level of joy and upbeat optimism. This third song has a great hook and showcases a definite strength of songwriting in addition to the clear vocal style and production prowess from before.
Golden years is a stunning track, thoughtful and expressive, poetically honest and endearing in being so. That leading voice is smoothly seductive and incredibly calming to have pour out around you among this notably gentle soundscape. A few simple layers are all that’s needed to lay the scene and set the mood. The song itself is immensely deep, captivating, and often heartbreaking. It feels very real and is exceptionally easy to play on repeat before progressing.
Hand in hand follows with more space, quiet, and a simple expression of love and loyalty. The gentle beat and the guitar sound sublime together. The trip-hop rhythm keeps things moving, your own inner visuals have the potential to run wild as you lose yourself within the moment. Afterwards, Font Leroy injects a touch more swagger and confidence with the lightly energetic bounce of flygirl. A carefree and easily accessible subject matter makes this a pop-EDM hit that’s likely to connect with any number of music fans across the electronic and pop genres.
miss you is an ambient song that features a stunning vocal performance – the melody meanders emotionally as a simple backdrop allows the lyrics and the vocal tone to lay the foundation. The complexity of this long-form melodic evolution helps make the track an absolute highlight. There’s something fairly painful at its core that floats alongside of something incredibly loving and intimate. The contrast is powerful, and the finer details of the soundscape work further in favour of that – the rain, the longing, the softness and the space.
At the penultimate moment, snow brings through another gorgeously unique, rising melody line, and a quickly enjoyable beat that lets you really settle into the scenery and ideas presented. There’s a lot of character here, a lot that’s defiantly memorable – in hindsight this is one of the most recognisable tracks and another highlight for its creative flair and originality.
love again (feat. Royce) marks the end of the playlist, though really it just prompts you to head back and re-experience it all. There’s a humble air of authenticity to this album that makes it a reliable and deeply appealing project. Font Leroy is not out here shouting for attention or desperate for views. Instead, he’s making music that means something to him, that he himself is a fan of, and for these reasons the entire album works perfectly. This could quite easily have been a slept on or forgotten classic from a decade or two ago. Instead, we get to journey through it first hand – as the perfect escape from the noise of 2019.
Download more music via Bandcamp. Find & follow Font Leroy on Instagram.
