When you hear his voice, you know it’s unlike any other. It’s deep, dark, and sounds like it’s dubbed (layered), at times, but I’m not even sure if it is.
While listening, you probably paint a picture in your mind of big African American man and the name strengthens that impression, because it’ll make you think he’s a blues singer. It’s Rag’n’Bone Man. No doubt, he would be a US based singer, right?
His single, “Human”, was released in the summer of 2016, but is still a high rotation song, today. It’s such a big hit in Europe, that I’m actually surprised finding out that his success hasn’t even reached beyond that, so far.
This surprise was not the only one. The picture I painted above, is exactly what I had in my head until I recently saw a picture of him, for the first time since the release of his single, “Human”. To my surprise, Rag’n’Bone Man is a big white man from the UK with the look of a hard rocker and the voice of a Gospel singer. I’m still getting used to this.
“Human” didn’t only stand out to me due to the vocals, but the honest lyrics also hit a nerve. The song conveys the message that all we can do is our best and our mistakes are human. It’s nice when someone tells you it’s ok to be making mistakes instead of the constant search for perfection we get to hear all day through.
The song has had such an incredible long run of success, that the follow up, “Skin” has only been released recently. Less than a month ago, to be exact. Because “Human” is still claiming most of the airplay, I’ve only heard the new song a few times, but it has been well-received by radio DJs. And now, he released an album and took over the charts.
The album, also named “Human”, has entered the UK charts at number one after selling 117,000 copies in combined formats (physical, streams and downloads). It makes it the fastest selling debut album in a decade and even made his debut stronger than people like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith! So, if you haven’t been hearing his music yet, you just might wanna….. Expect a soul and blues.
