Marc Broussard: Marc Broussard

Posted August 17, 2011 by J Matthew Cobb in Reviews 1.0

Southern singer chooses easy-listening pop rather than his usual blues

You’d think that singer/songwriter Marc Broussard was auditioning for Chris Evans’ double in the summer film Captain America if you took one glance at the album cover of his self-titled album. Actually, it’s a pretty cool image: a leather-clad Broussard sprinting forward with a flying American flag in his possession, but it’s an image that doesn’t technically fit his kind of bayou soul. Although his voice and preferred musical style is linked to the swampy heartlands of Louisiana – one of America’s greatest musical frontiers of jazz, blues and funk – most musicologists tend to wrap their preconceived notions of patriotic music around Bruce Springsteen, Lee Greenwood and fiddle-fueled folk. But Broussard’s distinctive soulful voice wraps so delicately around just about any type of music thrown at him. Soul purists want him all to themselves, but give him a soaring popera track from Michael Buble, a Lenny Kravitz guitar-drizzled rock jam (“Bleeding Heart”) or a Mavis Staples gospel-blues drencher (“Eye On The Prize”), he can just about do it. Like Adele, Broussard duplicates notes that can only be accessed from the depths of the soul. And on Marc Broussard’s self-titled event, his second for Atlantic, he does just that while sifting through a nice assortment of American music.

The album opener, “Lucky,” walks in the footsteps of Hall & Oates ‘70’s soul, while Broussard’s vocals soothes the Bruno Mars beats of “Cruel.” The most gratifying moment for Broussard is when he delicately touches the songwriting grandeur of John Mayer on “Let It All Out.” When he sweeps into his falsetto on the chorus last line (“Say everything to me”), his voice places tingling sensations to the spine.

It is obvious that some tracks fail to stand out as frontrunners. The Eighties leftover pop of “Only Everything” and the lyrical blah-ness of “Yes Man” feel like salvageable demos in search of an extra writer. But even with Broussard’s mistakes of trying to do it all on one album, like Steve Rogers before the Super Soldier Serum, he is justified in his right to dash into the sunset with Old Glory. He’s just in need of some additional super powers before the next battle.

J MATTHEW COBB