Amos Lee: Spirit

Amos Lee
Spirit
(Republic)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

With 2015’s career spanning, orchestra enhanced live set now out of his system, it’s back to moving his career and sound forward on Amos Lee’s sixth and first fully self-produced studio effort. While he has always used his everyman soulful voice to provide an extra layer of honesty to his introspective folk rock, here Lee leans more directly to those R&B aspects of his approach.

The somewhat reserved singer-songwriter has mostly abandoned the laconic country groove he had been veering towards. Instead he emphasizes the folk/pop oriented jazz, blues and particularly gospel aspects of his music. Whether he’s espousing the joys of “New Love” that introduces the stripped down horn section of saxist Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross on trumpet or reveling in the slinky Memphis inspired groove of “Til You Come Back Through” and “Walls,” two tracks where the singer shifts into sweet falsetto mode, this is a smart move. Lee also adds subtle strings — violin, viola, occasional cello — to further embellish this vibe. The string players bring this chamber folk pop to life, especially on “Hurt Me” where their swirling intensity reflects the emotional turmoil of lyrics “and I’m begging you to free the pain that locks me up inside.”

Lee ruminates on a particularly bad relationship in many selections including the disc’s first single “Vaporize” where he says “I’ve been stressing all the time/I can’t seem to find/a little piece of mind” as tinkling piano and programmed beats along with real drums push an already catchy ballad melody into sing-along status. He compares his emotions to the harshness of nature (storms, crashing waves, wind) on the wonderfully churchy “One Lonely Light,” one of many tunes that marry honeyed melodies to darker lyrics. Lee shifts into full blown Stevie Wonder territory for the soulful “Lost Child,” an original that seems like a leftover from Innervisions.

The hand claps and religious fervor that drives the upbeat Motown-ish “Running Out of Time” pushes him into Al Green mode, a style that underlies the best of these 13 tracks (the deluxe edition adds two extra). A few more like that would inject an edge to a set that, with its heavy helping of ballads, gets a little too slick for its own good. That may grab more adult-alternative airplay but it often leaves the songs feeling too sterile by half.

Give Lee credit for expanding his boundaries while maintaining the quality of songwriting that has kept him a headliner since his 2005 debut. Over a decade into his career, Spirit is a spirited reminder that his recognized talents are improving over time.