Josh Kelley won't be able to outrun the
John Mayer comparisons.
For the Ride Home, the young Mississippian's easygoing Hollywood debut, was helmed by
John Alagia, the guy behind
Mayer's Room for Squares and
the Dave Matthews Band's Crash, among others.
Kelley sports a similar flair for phrasing and first-person confession, too, especially on "Angeles" and "Travelin'."
Ride Home also tends slightly toward the bland -- "I Saw You" is like a highway exit with 14 enticing yet utterly homogenous fast-food offerings. Thankfully, dollops of
Kelley's homespun charm keep things interesting. Opener and lead single "Amazing" is an upbeat, dizzy number warmed by
Kelley's husky expressive vocals and an organ solo. The song's similarity to
Jason Mraz' "Remedy (I Won't Worry)" isn't surprising --
Alagia produced that one, too. But that's all right.
For the Ride Home ends up succeeding for some of the same reasons
Mraz and
Mayer did -- like them,
Kelley has a disheveled friendliness that's hard to resist. He's a top-shelf, road-trip conversationalist, looks great in a wrinkled oxford, and settles comfortably somewhere between sensitive and upbeat. His five o'clock shadow never gets to ten, and he's looking at you with amusement over the lip of his coffee mug. While lighthearted stuff like "Perfect 10" and the single certainly please, it's actually the quieter material that's most promising here. "Amen" is an elegiac number that suggests, well,
Seal, while the arrangement for emotional standout "Home to Me" is wisely pared down to
Kelley's faintly cracking vocal, an acoustic guitar, and a pretty wash of atmospherics. Taken with the rootsy, winking "Faces" ("The forecast calls for rain to take away the day/I guess we'll just have to stay inside the room...."), the track illustrates
Kelley's deft, broken-in touch, and proves he's much more than just another square. ~ Johnny Loftus