Jojo the high road acapella
JoJo’s head voice is light and capable, breathing the notes in the first chorus with sweet ease. The lyrics are filled with graphic images like, “ you took a knife to my heart / cut out the rational parts” and, “ twisting like wire in your arms / a dangerous place for my heart.” The statements are significant, metaphors sharp and honest as she fully and perfectly describes a love that is grand, insane, and at times a little torturous. After the first two records of tracks mostly written for the singer, it’s great to hear JoJo’s literary voice again.
The song was co-written by Levesque along with Nikki Flores, and Josh Monroy who produced it. Resounding horns, thudding bass notes, sprinkled with keys and ringing bells send you right back to the 60s and early 70s, before you return to the hook of churchy backing vocals enchantingly chanting “ mad love.” There’s this old school love-song vibe going on, but it’s not tired or dated.
Since then she released another three songs as promotional singles “FAB” featuring Remy Ma, piano ballad “Music”, and one I thought I’d give some special attention to: the bold and impressive title track.įirst off, it’s nice to hear popular music written in a time signature other than 4/4 the song swings and bops along to the picking of the electric guitar, stomping kick drum and wailing backing vocals. The cavalier and unrelenting pop/R&B track garnered a positive response and an official video was uploaded to the singer’s YouTube account. Then in the late summer of 2016, (having signed to and settled in at new label Atlantic), JoJo dropped “F*** Apologies” featuring Wiz Khalifa, which was announced as the lead single from the long-awaited new album. She put out the mixtapes Can’t Take That Away from Me (2010) and Agápē (2012), followed by the EPs LoveJo (2014), III (2015) and LoveJo2 (2015). In short, while dealing with legal troubles – without a doubt the main reason for her lengthy mainstream absence – she never let that stop her from creating and releasing music to her fans. There’s a lot that’s happened in the gap between The High Road (2006), which was JoJo’s last official LP, and the forthcoming Mad Love (out 14th October). Finally, thankfully, gladly after 10 long years, it can be said with near absolute certainty that Joanna “JoJo” Levesque is releasing her third studio album.