After the release of two successful EPs, Jamie Isaac developed and released his debut full length, Couch Baby. Heavily influenced by jazz, R&B, and indie rock, the album keeps an easy listening vibe without feeling stale. The album has already gained traction for the UK artist, who is already anticipated to be one of the most talked about artists of 2016.
Jamie Isaac Builds Collage of Genres
A large portion of this album’s success is the fact that Jamie Isaac is able to masterfully blend different genres into a fresh new sound. The track “CNT U SEE” strongly exemplifies this artistic talent by crossing jazzy pianos and saxophones with electronic beats and a cymbals from a traditional drum set. The result is mesmerizing and leads one to sway in an almost hypnotic way.
Title track “Couch Baby” also serves as an Interlude to the album — which also features “Intro” and “Outro” tracks — has more elements of jazz and soft indie rock. There are slow and echoing guitars that play off of a jazz piano and a simple bass and snare beat. The vocals wave in distortion and idle between angelic and demonic, which adds to the idea of an interlude and serves as a nice “crossing the threshold” moment for the album.
The last track before the outro is “She’ll Always Close In.” It follows suit to “Couch Baby” by bouncing between the soft indie voice of Jamie Isaac and a deep, distorted voice that is featured in between verses. This track seems to be more of a narrative than other songs on the album, but retains the same cross-genre blend of jazz and electronica. The electronic elements build more towards the end of the song and anticipate the ending of the album.
The “Outro” track serves as a “cool down” after “She’ll Always Close In” ends. Both the “Intro” and “Outro” tracks have dominantly jazz instrumentals and feature soft echoing vocals. With the “Intro,” “Couch Baby” interlude, and “Outro” serving as the glue to Couch Baby, there is a seamless connectivity to each track that does not disappoint.
