Atlanta’s current king of soul, Leon Bridges, has released his newest single, the slow-burning and sensual ‘Motorbike’.
Bridges is always good for some killer new music. A light departure from the deep fried southern soul that Bridges is famous for, ‘Motorbike’ is a smoother, more electronic effort. It’s not like this is a techno song, but its gently trippy drum loop and greater reliance of synths and keyboards is a departure from the horn sections and wide open live sound of his past work. Bridges could sometimes come off as a retro fetishist, but there’s none of that on ‘Motorbike’. I happen to like his retro fetishism, and I happen to like the fresher production on his latest, so the logical conclusion is that Bridges is a versatile artist who can comfortably work around just about any instrumentation or stylistic shakeup.
‘Motorbike’ also comes packaged with a new music video directed by Anderson .Paak. The wonderfully romantic visualizer, which has a fair amount of Pulp Fiction, Bonnie and Clyde, and Queen & Slim in it, is a beautifully shot and tragically-tinged accompany piece to the song proper.
‘Motorbike’ also comes with the announcement of a new album, Gold-Digger Sound, set for a summer release. The album will be Bridges’ third after the fantastic one-two punch of 2015’s Coming Home and 2018’s Good Thing. Last year saw the release of his collaborative EP Texas Sun with the psychedelic funksters Khruangbin. That album, which is about as desert-scorched as you can get, was a fantastically low-key left turn for Bridges, who seems to be slowly moving away from the Stax-inspired sounds of his early career and into futuristic sonic territories. It’ll be exciting to hear what fresh angles Gold-Digger Sound conjures.
Check out the video for ‘Motorbike’ down below. Gold-Digger Sound is set for a July 23 release.
