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Vocal-driven music is having quite a nice spring, and you don’t need to look any further for some of its best harmonies than the tracklist of Jenn Howard’s incredible sophomore album Valiant Woman, currently out everywhere that quality indie music can be found. Powered by its potent vocals and raging grooves, Valiant Woman’s best songs – like its title track, the passionate “Wanted” and colorful “I Can’t Call” – are anything but one-dimensional. Howard gives us one potential hit after another here and, simply put, sounds like an elite player if I’ve ever heard one before.
Though they were recorded with a bit more buoyancy than the other songs here, “Where’d You Go,” “Lay Down the Law” and “Better Than You Think” show us a Jenn Howard who is seemingly just as comfortable in this context – if not a little more – as she is in the conventionality-born “Microphone (ft. Ivan Neville),” “Hold On,” or “Pocket Fox.” She’s got an easygoing stride no matter which of these tracks we’re listening to, and when taking into account how wide-ranging and versatile a lot of the material (and the venues) are in Valiant Woman, this tracklist feels like all the more of a testament to her talents as an artist.
There are some not-so-subtle jazz influences in “Take a Hand,” “Where’d You Go” and the title cut in this record that I would love to hear Howard expand upon a little further in future recordings, but in the context of this effort, they’re partly what makes this album feel like the diverse fire-starter it undeniably is. This artist has such an amazingly multifaceted musical profile that there’s no caging her many-splendored melodies once they come pouring out of the stereo speakers in droves, and while she gave her fans reason to have high expectations with this latest release, she surpasses everything I’d hoped to hear out of her for sure.
The arrangement of the songs in Valiant Woman allows for fluidity in the material that I haven’t heard a whole lot of when reviewing mainstream pop and R&B lately, and to some extent, it reduces the contrast between the compositional styles in play here in a positive fashion. This does feel like two albums in one, but there isn’t a major shift in tone as we move from “Pocket Fox” to “I Can’t Call.” Call it gilded producing if you will, but from my perspective, the continuity in this LP starts and ends with Jenn Howard herself.
Whether or not she had anything left to prove to audiences and critics alike in this release isn’t up for debate – before Valiant Woman, Jenn Howard was already a shining star of the underground, but with the release of this second album, I think she solidifies her status as one of the best vocalists around on either side of the dial right now. There isn’t a stitch of filler that will require you to hit the skip button when listening to this record – if anything, I would recommend hearing it all the way through without interruption, as that offers the best experience any pop enthusiast can get ahold of this month.
Jennifer Munoz
