Record Club:
WEEK 247 — October 22-28, 2023
Come Around and Love Me
by Jalen Ngonda
LISTEN:
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PICKED BY RACHEL C.
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ALBUM DETAILS
GENRE: Soul
RELEASED: September 8, 2023
LENGTH: 32:53
TRACKLIST:
- Come Around and Love Me
- If You Don't Want My Love
- Lost
- That's All I Wanted from You
- Please Show Me
- Just Like You Used To
- What a Difference She Made
- Give Me Another Day
- So Glad I Found You
- It Takes a Fool
- Rapture
LYRICS: Genius.com (missing the lyrics for the last song, "Rapture")
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ARTIST DETAILS
PRONOUNS: he/him/his
ABOUT: Jalen Ngonda was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. He's currently 28. When he was eighteen or nineteen, he moved to Liverpool to pursue a career in music. He states that his father introduced him to his music collection when he was eleven (soul and jazz and hip hop), and Ngonda has been set on making that his career ever since. He has been gigging his way across the UK since he moved there, and his debut album was finally released last month, after being delayed for years due to COVID. (Did my best here, it's always a little more difficult when the artist in question doesn't have a Wikipedia page to steal from.)
DISCOGRAPHY: Come Around and Love Me is Jalen Ngonda's first and only LP so far, having just been released last month. He previously released an EP, Talking About Mary, in 2018.
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ADDITIONAL INFO
READING SOME SHIT: The transcript of his NPR interview
WATCHING SOME SHIT: Full performance in Atlanta, GA, two days before the album dropped
PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: There have been plenty of soul-adjacent albums over the years in Record Club, but by my estimation, there was only one other album prior to this that could be described simply as "soul music"—William DeVaughn's Be Thankful for What You Got.
Ngonda is the second Record Club alumnus to hail from Silver Spring, Maryland. The first was Tori Amos (though there was some question as to whether Amos called it her hometown, since her family moved around a lot). There was also that bonus track on Rumours called "Silver Springs" (though they incorrectly pluralized it, and plus, fuck bonus tracks, amirite?!).
Ngonda is the second Record Club alumnus to hail from Silver Spring, Maryland. The first was Tori Amos (though there was some question as to whether Amos called it her hometown, since her family moved around a lot). There was also that bonus track on Rumours called "Silver Springs" (though they incorrectly pluralized it, and plus, fuck bonus tracks, amirite?!).
Jalen Ngonda isn't even the first Jalen to give a vocal performance on a Record Club album. Recall that Jalen Hurts made a cameo appearance on the Philadelphia Eagles' fantastic version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (sorry, Jalen #1, Santa Claus probably won't be bringing you a Super Bowl ring like you asked for).
One of the random bios on Jalen Ngonda that I found said that he toured with Martha Reeves at one point. I didn't even know Martha was still touring, but I have no reason to disbelieve it.
Finally, I thought it might be interesting to list some of the Record Club albums and artists that have included the word "Love" in them, since Come Around and Love Me adds to that list. We have: Cuz I Love You (by strip club aficionado Lizzo), How Sad, How Lovely, Spanish Love Songs, Lydia Loveless, Tell Me You Love Me (by lizard person Demi Lovato), Deadpan Love, With Love and Squalor, and In Love with a Ghost.
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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
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