‘To Whom This May Concern’ is a warm-weather soundtrack for our times.

8.0

Credit: Blues Babe Records / Human Re Sources

Jill Scott’s first record in 10 years is an open letter; sunshine soundtracks need earnest messaging behind them.

The weather is warming up, and my ears have been craving a suitably sensuous soundtrack. Jill Scott has just the ticket, her first album in 10 years defined by rich basses and shimmering trebles. But such are the times that sunshine soundtracks need earnest messaging behind them. To Whom This May Concern posits its offering right there in the title; Scott gets her feelings off her chest, and you can decide if it’s something you need.

I’m thankfully less in need of the man trouble she details on a couple of tracks, but the call to find love in the daily injustices of the 2020s has certainly resonated. Life is the central force of the record, self-reflection over the self-introspection many Neo Soul records have gone for in the last decade. Going over how awful everything is making us feel is exhausting. Contributing something back is the only way forward.

In that light, some may find the generic appeals to harmony uninspiring. Scott, however, is anything other than predictable, cheeky and boisterous on cuts like ‘Don’t Play’ and ‘Pay U on Tuesday’, whilst going serious and earnest on ‘Pressha’ and lead single ‘Beautiful People’. So too goes the diversity in genre, bringing Funk, Trap and Jazz Rap elements under the record’s umbrella, before taking an unexpected left-turn into Diva House for ‘Right Here Right Now’.

“Going over how awful everything is making us feel is exhausting. Contributing something back is the only way forward.”

With all the slick production there to synthesise the project’s eclecticness, you wait in hope for a moment of true wonder, but it never quite comes. The record is always more comfortable in the background, and doesn’t try for an anchor moment you’re left thinking about. Plenty of the transitions, however, are stellar. Don’t be overwhelmed by that 57 minute runtime either, this thing is engaging throughout and it breezes by.

I’m a newcomer to Jill Scott, very much a disciple of Neo Soul’s 2010s output under Frank Ocean and Solange, and not as versed in D’Angelo and Erykah Badu as I ought to be. There’s no slighting other artists on To Whom, but the intention is clear: the need to build a better future is in our hands, and art that engages with that is essential. The offshoots across the album to socio-economic problems and discussions of race cannot be ignored, much as she doesn’t intend this to be a protest album. We will always need our warm weather soundtracks, but these days, it’s essential that they are not merely distractions. Scott puts her feelings down in an open letter, and nudges you to do something with your own.

Score: 8.0/10

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