If you close your eyes and listen to Leon, the fourth studio album from singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, you can see Fort Worth, TX. Bridges makes extremely vulnerable music, and Leon is his most personal project to date, bringing listeners home with him to Fort Worth, leaving enough space for his fans to connect and fill in the blanks with their own stories.
But the paradox is that he's not nearly as open in conversation. During an afternoon Zoom call with Exclaim!, I push but can't get him to fully open up.
"I have always been reluctant to be vulnerable," admits from behind a laptop screen. He looks tired under a tall brown cowboy hat and behind dark shades. "But on this album, I really wanted to shed some light on the place I deem home. And that is Fort Worth, my place of refuge."
Leon paints the singer's hometown as a dreamy utopia, the lyrics of each song filled with loose, happy memories of growing up and returning home. But beneath that, Leon also shares how success has taken a toll on him, to the point that he almost needs that city outside Dallas to ground him.
In the song "Simplify," Bridges sings about yearning for moments less complicated. He says it is the most emotionally taxing song to perform on the album.
"As artists, we climb the ladder, and then there is this desire to just go back to simpler times. I think that is one thing I want people to take away from this album: to never lose sight of what is meaningful to you," Bridges says.
By his own admission, Bridges is never satisfied and still feels like he has a lot to prove. He was red hot in 2016, after releasing his debut album Coming Home. And while he's still widely critically acclaimed, he hasn't reached the same commercial peak since.
On Leon, he drops his usual throwback '60s R&B style for an amalgam of different sounds, including blues, folk, country, and R&B from the '90s and '00s, with soul as the foundation. He doesn't overtly say it, but there is a sense while speaking with him that he hopes his new holistic approach will get his music into the ears of more listeners.
"It felt like my music was falling on deaf ears," he admits. "It's always been hard to categorize myself. I feel like Leon reflects me having my own genre and embracing my singularity."
Still very proud of his early work, Bridges clarifies that he knows some of that pressure is all in his head: "I don't think it's a real thing. I know I've got love; I don't want to take that for granted. But I guess it's more like the industry. I feel like people have been sleeping on the music, but maybe it's not real."
What is real, though, is Bridges's excitement for fans to hear his new album. "It is really surreal that I have four albums out right now," he reflects.
On Leon, the kid from Fort Worth who loved to dance and sing finally merges with his evolving artistic persona. When asked where the character ends and his real self begins, Bridges pauses to consider his response.
"It's all an extension of who I am; with each album, I've always had to reinvent myself," he says.
"My first thing was the '60s thing. Then on Gold-Diggers Sound, it was about flexing my R&B muscle; it was more of a bravado. I wanted to explore the 90s and 2000s sound, but do it my own way." He pauses again.
"I've been working on this album for almost five years, but it took a lifetime to accumulate these stories; on this one, it is just me."