Referring to
Dornik Leigh's first album simply as promising would be downplaying it. It's a rare debut liable to provoke a mix of admiration and envy from contemporaries, and quite possibly a lengthy queue of prospective collaborators. One peer pleased to uplift
Dornik was
Jessie Ware, who employed the South London native as a performing drummer and duet partner, then helped him join the PMR roster. Across a two-year period,
Dornik scattered a few singles that provoked
Michael Jackson comparisons. The series began with the swaying synth-funk ballad "Something About You," where his assured but slightly bashful delivery recalled the
MJ of "Butterflies" (which happened to be co-written by a fellow U.K. artist
Marsha Ambrosius). That initial taste is here, as are most of the supplemental doses that preceded the album. They all fit together for a fluid 40-minute set of sweet modern soul that, accessible as it is, falls to the left of mainstream R&B. Seemingly written with one object of affection in mind, and all about the expression of admiration rather than the detailing of exploits, the lyrics -- and their modest delivery -- evoke the pre-new jack swing era, when the major players in U.K. R&B included Derek Bramble,
David Grant,
Freeez, and
Loose Ends.
Dornik gets only a little help. Andrew "Pop" Wansel assists on "Stand in Your Line," a song that's starry-eyed like
Elle Varner's "I Don't Care," though certain elements could be mistaken for the work of
Rick James or
Quadron's Robin Hannibal. "Shadow," a weightless highlight, was written with poet and author Laura Dockrill.
Pharrell Williams couldn't be faulted for reacting to it by throwing something out of recognition and jealousy. The ten-percent of the album that isn't a sparkling slow jam or midtempo cut is a swift and uplifting jam that approximates a super session with
Dâm-Funk,
the-Dream, and 1984
Prince. It leads off -- both a sly fake-out and a hell of a way to open one of 2015's most pleasurable debuts. [
Dornik was also released on LP.] ~ Andy Kellman