After Jeremih’s 2015 Late Nights: The album success, he is back to replicate that. LATE NIGHTS: EUROPE was released as a surprise back in July and on all commercial streaming platforms on the 24th of August.
The album being a surprise may not have helped its overall reception, as it was not highly publicised or promoted. This LP was recorded during Jeremih’s first European headline tour this summer, hence the name. With ‘Oui’ off his last album going platinum, it’s clear that Jeremih still has a solid fan base, which he clearly deserves. He shows his talent by reportedly recording this album in just two weeks. The LP has 14 thoroughly polished songs with great features and phenomenal production.
Back in December 2011, Jeremih shared that he would be releasing his third LP, originally entitled Thumpy Johnson, which is still currently his bio of Instagram. His third studio album, in fact, was entitled ‘Late Nights with Jeremih’ in 2012. Therefore, it appears that this current project “Late Nights: Europe” serves as a trilogy to his past albums. The new project has collaborations with Ty Dolla $ign (who also featured on ‘Impatient’ off the previous album), The Game, G Herbo and K Camp.
“‘Czech Republic’ has an old school, RnB vibe and is definitely a stand out track, because the beat is very sensual and relates to the album title”
Jeremih himself stated: “I had never really recorded on the road… After a lot of the shows, we’d set up small little booths in the hotel room. It reminded me of how I used to work before I got signed; I recorded at my grandad’s crib in a small little room.”
One can pick up the nostalgic feel of this album to Jeremih’s older music. ‘Czech Republic’ has an old school, RnB vibe and is definitely a stand out track, because the beat is very sensual and relates to the album title.
The beat is nostalgic in taking you back to the sounds we associate with Jeremih’s earlier hit that went double platinum, ‘Birthday Sex’, back in 2009. The main theme in all the tracks on this album is sex, which comes as no surprise to fans of the artist. There are a lot of vivid tracks on the album such as ‘Oslo, Norway’ that features a woman’s spoken word piece of a very sexual nature.
‘London’ is a personal favourite of the writer, because Jeremih made sure he got some of the hottest fresh UK talents on it. South London duo ‘Krept and Konan’ and East London rapper Stefflon Don bring that London flavour to the album.
It is definitely one of the most upbeat tracks on the album. Stefflon Don sings in patois, which adds some extra summer flavour to the track. This was a wise decision, after the dancehall hit that Krept and Konan made with Jeremih last year, ‘Freak of the Week’, scored really high in the charts for several weeks.
They stayed true to the dancehall genre that helped their previous track succeed. Jeremih told Billboard that London was a “particular highlight for him on tour,” which may be why he has a strong connection with the song.
‘Amsterdam’ is a significant track, as it ends in a couple speaking in French as opposed to Dutch. However, in the hook of the track the recording artist sings about the famous red light district in Amsterdam to make the track true to its location. It looks like Amsterdam could have inspired the albums artwork, with the red lights and river in the background.
I find it interesting how a track called ‘Lebanon’ made it to the album, considering it is called Late Nights: Europe. The other tracks on the album are primarily focused on European cities, other than the track ‘Dubai’. It appears that the Middle East had an influence in the creation of this LP too.
‘Stockholm’ is another great RnB track, that highlights how unrecognised Jeremih’s talent is. It is another slow, love-making track that reminds me of a typical Trey Songz hit. I think it is fair to say that Jeremih is the closest current male RnB singer that we have to the 90’s Ginuwine and R Kelly.
In fact, earlier this year, Jeremih was one of the modern RnB vocalists pointed out in the New York Times podcast as not being given the recognition and credit he is owed.
“Jeremih continues to prove that he is the saviour of RnB”
The artist shared how every element of being on the road inspired him. Fans and listeners should feel like they are on a literal journey with Jeremih as “every song was inspired by wherever we went, whether it was the people, the food, the girls with their accents (which Jeremih did feature in many of his tracks).
Therefore, it is evident that the vocalists’ inspiration for this surprise project derived from the sold out back-to-back shows and seeing night after night sold out with new faces he explained that he couldn’t help but record afterwards.
Overall, I would rate this album very good, though not as great as ‘Late Nights’. But still, you need to acknowledge and praise Jeremih’s consistency. Let’s hope that there will be another European tour to promote this LP as his following internationally continues to grow.
Amani Dauda
Image courtesy of Jeremih via Facebook
