“Be A Man” is a symphonic spunky overture of Motown instrumentals with a hint of a 70s Bond ballad. As horns blare the melody, a bright big band swelling melody, imagine The Four Tops dancing with their arms outstretched, reaching out. Or imagine credits rolling on a movie screen and the movie is Floating Harmonies from the mind of Júníus Meyvant.
Júníus Meyvant Revamps Blue-Eyed Soul
Opening with dainty strings and summer-day drumbeats, “Beat Silent Need” swings right into a jam of sound, a funky torn-up energy. Reminding me of the distinctive Hall & Oates sensibility and structure, “Beat Silent Need” is an eclectic meld of conga-like drums and the crescendoing grooviness of keyboards, trombone, trumpet, and saxophone: “Don’t let my feet run over you / I know, you know.”
A feeling of ease, “Color Decay” enters with a sweetness of strings, a folk guitar, and deeply resonating bass. Fleshed out background vocals come together, with the unique vibrato from the falsetto of the main vocals, and the fullness of the horns and sax, expanding sound with each verse.
Optimistic and uplifting, “Color Decay” overlaps major chords using spinning percussion, charging horns, and beautifully blended melodies, creating a revelry of sound: a triumphant outpour ending in a tambourine sting.
With snappy, rattling drum rolls and bluesy vocals, “Neon Experience” revamps the soul genre. Strings stride on a striking slide as the main vocals melt down the scale in scattered riffs, accenting the music. Júníus Meyvant has a sexy voice full of rasp, growl, bliss, and straight-up soul, which rides right in the pocket of the music.
Snapping into dissipating drums, evoking a flashback, “Neon Experience” slows. And as a clapping tempo resurfaces again, into a cool beat, a communal choir of voices chimes in for the chorus. Like a whoopee cushion sighing, the music winds down in exhaustion.
“Domestic Grace Man” creates a beach-like sunrise with rasgueado-style guitar strumming, intricate fingerpicking, and soothing harmonies. “Hillside” slides in with a “sweet like honey” legato melody, adding to the poppy rhythm and musicality of the drum pattern and vocals, and the strident notes of the horns.
Bubbling fingerpicking and frog notes from the bass break “Signals” open. The vocals pierce through in a whisper and the drums bounce in a slow rhythm. “Sending out signals,” the elegantly elongated notes of the violin play over this spacey effervescence.
“Pearl in the Sandbox” is intimate, setting forth a cozy vibe with an acoustic guitar paired with the soft vocals of Júníus Meyvant. His private thoughts echo around a memory: “It’s hard for me to laugh again / It’s human not to cry.”
But as chords blossom into a morning sunrise bird-chirping energy, as if sitting by the window after waking, with pure sentiments circling the brain, the lyrics change: “Though its hard for me to laugh again / Good memories make me smile.”
