Album Review: Jordan Rakei - Franklin's Room

Single/opener, My Time, commences with solemn, lounge room-style piano, juxtaposed with the sudden introduction of crunching drums and soulful vocals. This culminates in an unusual but effective brand of contemporary R&B. Follow-up track, Hope is similarly sultry, but lacks the adventurousness of the opening song. Maintaining suaveness, Selfish branches out with brassy instrumentation and a rasta groove. Get Up is similarly accessible, offering a catchy, funk-infused rhythm and Afro-style percussion; flickerings of watery, tinny keyboard notes adding colour. Rakei's vocals prove effortlessly polished, but border on sleazy. He plays at Corner Hotel on 21 Nov.