Music is beautiful, music is life, music is filled with much love and cultural attributes that can bring hope to a lonely soul. The musical group Leon and the Peoples demonstrates these attributes in their new album titled, Love is a Beautiful Thing. The album was released on July 20th, 2018 through the Spectra Music Group with its billboard charting single “Beautiful”. This band has created their own genre by mixing reggae with soul, allowing their audience to hear sounds from all over the world. Particularly in this album we hear the vocals of the band leader Leon Robinson, followed by background vocals from Patrice Anthony, Cathy ‘Alexis’ Layne, and Leslie Rochelle. The album encompasses world class musicians who help create these beautiful melodies.
Many of you should be familiar with the leader of the group, Leon Robinson, whom of which is an artist of many talents, such as singer, songwriter, producer and actor. Leon’s acting career carries over to his music and how he leads the band. He portrayed David Ruffin in the hit Mini-Series “The Temptations” a famous Motown group. He also played in “The Five Heartbeats,” and was in a biographical movie acting as “Little Richard”. His ability to act in musical groups from back in the day has carried over to his legitimate musical group, Leon and the Peoples. His voice is heartfelt and full of soul when expressing different forms of love in every song.
The album’s single and top charting song “Beautiful” takes you back in the day to funky soul music that you would groove to in almost every setting. If you listen closely, the song is about spreading love to everyone you know by telling them they are beautiful which is a message everyone should hear. A lot of reggae music is about spreading peace, love, and happiness and that is exactly what this album is doing.
Several songs on the album appear as if they are speaking of love in a negative way based on titles such as “Sometimes I Wish I was Single”, “No Good for Me”, and “Happy and Sad.” The irony behind the songs mentioned, is that Leon is actually expressing love from a backwards view. Basically, stating that if he could do it all over again, he would still do it the same way; meaning that love is a beautiful thing but it comes with many hardships.
If you are listening to this album take the time to watch the video to one of the albums singles,“Love is a Beautiful Thing”. The song is more upbeat, not so much reggae, you hear more guitar, drums and bass but still a has a feel-good vibe. The video correlates with this feel-good vibe as Leon travels the streets of New York City spreading love to all of his peers. Based off this song and several others Leon can be portrayed as a family man due to the several mentions of loving his own family and telling others to love theirs as well.
All and All, this album was a hit. Leon and the Peoples managed to make every song uplifting and get their point across that love is a beautiful thing. You can drive to this album, you can sit in the rain and listen to this album or you can even get up dance to this album. Leon and the Peoples show a lot of potential in moving forward as band and forecasting more songs to be on Billboard charts.
4/5 Stars