It is quite telling that the captain of the Every Us ship, Ryan Jones, has spent years living in cities around the world, absorbing, understanding, and collaboratively creating music. Because if the current EP, Some Kind of We, doesn’t sound like the embodiment of a global, collaborative, genre-hopping music-making community turned into song, I don’t know what does.
The five songs found here sound like little you have heard before. You might hear echoes of styles and fleeting genre signature moves, bluesy passages, rootsy vibes, and neo-soul grooves passing through, but the bringing together of those established sounds is nothing if not forward-thinking. Not only that, but also energized, eclectic, and adventurous.
“Cavalry” opens things up with a gospel-infused slice of understated funk, a song running on beat and Hammond organ, but, like everything found here, revelling in the power of the collective voice, a choral celebration put to infectious grooves.
“B-Train” is, a warm and welcoming blend of old-school urban funk and cutting edge, dancefloor-driven neo-soul, an ode to friendship, something both intimate and personal and yet universally relatable “Stuck With” is the spiritual, not to mention sonic, heart of the EP…the sound of people gathered to make music for the only reasons that matter – connection, collaboration, creativity and community, joy and the act of leaving something behind that didn’t exist before you raised your voices—art for art’s sake, but music made to capture the moment, to create memories.
“The Motions” moves more into the indie realm but never leaves its inherent soulful energies behind, and “Fake It” is a big, lush, and rich rush of emotions as the lyrics explore the space that hangs between needing love and trying to outrun it.
Some Kind of We feels like a moment, as if someone accidentally hit record as people gathered together to explore and improvise and to put their feelings and emotions into song. It is both timeless and very specific, but it is also a glorious reminder of why we make music and what it means. Forget fame and fortune, riches and careers, this is the act of music making as a reward in its own right. More people should try it.
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