Review

Eamon

No Matter The Season

Now-Again • 2022

A mistake? A dirty trick? You read: Artist = Eamon, Label = Now-Again. You google, because STOP, there was something!, and you are confirmed: That’s the real name of the »Fuck you I don’t want you back« singer with the chin; who looked like Drake, woohoo woohoooooo o o yeah. Like wat, but that’s already just a different guy than the one releasing here on Now-Again, the big Los Angeles label specialising in reissues? Turns out: No. It’s the same man. Remarkable. What a story. I mean, it’s a long way from New Era caps and posters in German youth magazine Bravo to being signed to a label that record buyers with very irregular clothes-washing routines find creditable. But here he is, Eamon with his second album on Now-Again, »No Matter The Season«. And from here on, everything becomes almost easy, too. If you like Daptone, if you enjoy poppy soul, you’ll get some really good stuff here – after a short while of getting over it. The clue: Eamon and the production duo Likeminds use samples from the Now-Again back catalogue in all but two songs. And it’s pretty Africa-heavy. Fuck-You-Sing… uh Eamon… sings his melodramatic, fervent vintage soul over Amanaz and Hygrades samples – Zamrock and Nigerian funk. Goosebumps then on the fifth track, »Ready For War«. What was that again, that sample? Nothing on Now-Again. Then the penny drops: This is Idrissa Soumaoro’s immortal »Fama Allah«. Absolutely mind melting, what comes together here. Everything in the world is exactly the same.