Music Review // pHoenix Pagliacci "Monday Jam"

 

When it comes to modern R&B I always think about how there isn't a modern version of Janet or Erika and we just find of have artists with elements of R&B but mostly they are called pop.  It might be on me, but I have to go back to the 1990's when you could hear R&B on the radio and go out and buy a cassingle from artists such as Jodeci, Shai and Boyz II Men.   Even though it felt like a different time, the music of pHoenix Pagliacci is a reminder of it and perhaps even some hope that it might soon return.

"Monday Jam" is a song which has a lot of elements but the prominent one in it is the vocals.  There are different layers to these vocals which can have them harmonizing.  There are lyrics in here which can read like poetry: "Don't wait around for me to catch you running / Just go ahead and leave me here with nothing" and yet at the same time there is that quality you don't see as much of in the 21st Century where the vocals are singing but without words.

The complexity within this song is that it is definitely heavy on the music to where you'll hear it and recognize it as a sound, but a lot of what makes up that music is the vocals.  When you think of songs, you most likely think of their lyrics first-- it's just more likely that you could sing the words of the chorus as opposed to the music itself.  But "Monday Jam" has that quality where you cannot separate the vocals from the music and it just all comes together as one.

Up until the very end there is singing without words and I just find that so fascinating as someone who was raised to hear music that way but also it feels like a lost art form.  The lyrics when they are here are poignant.  "Monday Jam" is such a great example of how far the depths of music can be pushed while in some ways making the sound still feel so accessible on the surface.  This is the style of sound that I really would love to hear more of because if it is a lost art then with this song consider it found again.