After a short hiatus from producing critically-acclaimed projects, including ‘Ghostin’ and ‘Excuse Me’ from his debut project ‘The Damian Mixtape’, CHRISTOF JENNINGS makes a sensuous return with single, ‘Taking Over’, slated for release on Bandcamp.
Reimagined and reclaimed, ‘Taking Over’ is a stripped-back, Motown-esque soul offering that drips with intimacy and restraint. The track pulses with raw desire — an overwhelming attraction so powerful that words begin to fail. Serving as a tantalising preview of his forthcoming EP 'XLV', slated for release later this year, the single signals a confident and seductive new chapter for Christof.
I want to tell you how much you mean to me …
So begins the lyrics of Christof Jennings’ ‘Taking Over’, preparing the listener for an auditory cocktail of poetic lyrics and sonorous vocals. The listener is assured of a good listening experience; that they are about to be treated to good music from early on: it is like the assurance of rain whenever rushing winds attend a gloomy afternoon in coastal Nigeria.
Musically, ‘Taking Over’ scores high in refinement. It is tastefully informed: the instrumental selection and arrangement hints at this. Christof is a producer, a sound engineer and song writer. This bears recalling and explains the elemental structure of the song.
The backup vocals work well to add to the dynamics of emotions conveyed with raw delivery. They’re balanced, complementary to the lead vocals and, overall, melodious. For some of us in Western Africa, we are reminded of the days when we listened to Usher Raymond and the influence he had in our emerging RnB scene of the early 2000s. ‘Taking Over’ brings on that nostalgia.
Is ‘Taking Over’ a forerunner?
This brings to attention yet again the question of the universality of music and how, like every form of human expression, it drives the cycle of human affairs ad infinitum: once, we thought the sequence of our musical experiences have led away Usher Raymond’s and now, with Taking Over, we are made to think of Usher Raymond again. Fashion has always been brought back. The same can be said of musical tastes. Are RnB listeners in West Africa about to see the onset of a comeback of sorts? Is ‘Taking Over’ a forerunner?
‘Taking Over’ has been described as ‘a stripped-back, Motown-esque soul offering that drips with intimacy …’, and rightly so. The vocals are weighted with raw emotion and rightly conveys it with informed delivery. It is no surprise then that it is being released on Valentine’s Day, a moment thematically suitable.
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