First Listen: Jill Scott helps Daley relieve "The Pain"

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    (March 27, 2017) Continuing a less edgy, more smoothed out soul sound that Daley committed to on his major label debut, Days & Nights, the 27-year-old UK artist returns with a new single, new record deal, and new duet partner in Jill Scott. Having burst onto the scene with left-of-center, emo material as an independent artist with his 2011 cult classic EP, Those Who Wait, long before moody genre blending was trendy, Daley’s commercial release for Universal Music was more in the traditional urban adult contemporary vein.

    (March 27, 2017) Continuing a less edgy, more smoothed out soul sound that Daley committed to on his major label debut, Days & Nights, the 27-year-old UK artist returns with a new single, new record deal, and new duet partner in Jill Scott. Having burst onto the scene with left-of-center, emo material as an independent artist with his 2011 cult classic EP, Those Who Wait, long before moody genre blending was trendy, Daley’s commercial release for Universal Music was more in the traditional urban adult contemporary vein.

    After such runaway momentum, the final results of his major label debut was a commercial and creative mixed bag, despite a Top 10 Billboard Adult R&B hit with the Pharrell produced “Look Up.” Accordingly, Universal promptly dropped Daley. Longtime fans, who had been riding with Daley since his first appearance on the Gorillaz’s “Doncamatic,” were left wondering whether the Manchester ginger with the sky-scraping range would simply recede from view.

    Three years since Days & Nights crashed and burned, a resurrected Daley is newly signed to BMG/The End Records and giving life in the majors another round. He’s also co-headlining The Undeniable Tour with soul mama Leela James on a spring ‘17 set of U.S. dates. This first single under Daley’s new deal offers a peek into the direction of his forthcoming album, The Spectrum. Landing an artist on the level of Jill Scott for the comeback cut certainly sends a message that Daley plans to come hard and is ceding none of the lost ground represented by his disappointing Republic/Polydor showing at Universal.

    While the soulful ballad breaks no new creative ground, it’s exquisitely sung and Scott’s blend with Daley’s is simply gorgeous. The polished cut has a haunting, rhapsodic quality that is more signature of Daley’s early work and builds in a way that old school soul fans will take great delight in experiencing. Still, whether it’s enough to move the needle on a career many expected would be stratospheric given the talent, branding, and hustle that once made Daley one of the most buzzed about newcomers of his generation, now remains to be seen. We at SoulTracks will certainly be paying attention for more clues on the direction of the second coming of Daley. Are you hanging in too?

    By L. Michael Gipson

    Daley feat. Jill Scott - "Until the Pain is Gone"