Darien Brockington Somebody to Love
Published Feb 20, 2007
After sinking his hooks into numerous Little Brother productions since the groups breakout LP The Listening, the Justus Leagues resident crooner finally looks to extend his shine past a few catchy choruses with his debut set Somebody to Love. As a singer, Darien Brockington is fairly straight ahead R&B part K.C. Hailey, part Carl Thomas and the album runs along in pretty much that tradition. What makes this record at all distinctive is the crisp, referential hip-hop production of E. Jones (predominantly), Khrysis and 9th Wonder. The LB producer sets the tone with a tight old school break on "Think It Over, while Chaundon joins Brockington on "More And More over Joness reworking of Gina Thompsons "The Things That You Do remix. Vocally though, the singer does have a distinctive voice and delivery thats good in small doses, for most of this record Brockington fails to do anything incredibly distinctive with them which, when given his chosen genre, isnt terrible surprising. Unfortunately, it means that the repetitive vocal inflections and limited approaches to romantic expression that comprise this disc wear thin rather quickly, despite Dariens obvious abilities. (
(ABB)