Dijon Hones His Genre-Bending Mix of R&B and Folk on 'How Do You Feel About Getting Married?'

BY Vijai Kumar SinghPublished May 15, 2020

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Baltimore-bred German-American R&B singer Dijon began making music at the University of Maryland after meeting his musical collaborator, Abhi Raju. Now residing in Los Angeles, the singer has lined up his second solo project, How Do You Feel About Getting Married?

In 2019, Dijon carved a unique lane for himself on Sci Fi 1, his debut solo EP. How Do You Feel About Getting Married? is a gentle exploration of sounds, opting to make 'under-produced' a stylistic choice.

"do you light up?" affirms the Frank Ocean comparisons with a very delicate and dream-like introduction. "alley-oop" sounds elegantly unrefined with distorted percussive hits, contrasted by the luscious guitar which, at times, feels more prominent than the singing. "rock n roll" features production that captures the energy of the genre after which the track is named, but its arrangement is a bit all over the place, while "dance song" contrasts the preceding track with a stripped back guitar-focused ballad. Dijon continues his reminiscing, lovingly singing, "Nobody has to know what we whisper about."

The closer, "jesse," is perhaps the project's best song, with an ethereal vocal performance and introspective guitar. "Jesse is late again," Dijon relays with disappointment: "Damn it, Jesse, it's true, I do love you." The song perfectly captures the irrationality of love, and how a loved one manages to betray us but still put a smile on our face.

Dijon has a tremendous talent for touching songwriting. Despite vocal similarities to Frank Ocean, his style remains a unique, genre-bending blend of R&B, folk and — on this project in particular — a bit of rock. How Do You Feel About Getting Married? is a stylistic complement to 2019's Sci Fi 1, with a bit more creative liberty to meander around the ideas of love, sincerity, disappointments and all of the other complicated contours of romance and love.
(Orienteer)

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