Wolfgang Valbrun has today released his new album titled ‘Flawed By Design’ released via Jalapeno Records. Hitting all of the retro feels in every good possible way, Wolfgang Valbrun takes an already classic sound and makes it timeless with every note presented.
It’s hard to imitate that classic Motown and Soul collective of sounds. Wolfgang doesn’t do that. He doesn’t even try to emulate them, actually. He moves them forward, making the past become the next step for the future. It’s hard not to get immersed into each song as it plays along in your playlist while wishing it was vinyl. These tracks come alive like being there in front of the stage while the band plays on, because the music lives on.
About Wolfgang Valbrun
American singer-songwriter Wolfgang Valbrun is following in the footsteps of soul music’s greats while delivering an album full of new lyrical and musical nuance.
After moving from New York to France in his teens Wolfgang found favour on the Paris circuit before being recruited as lead singer for avant-garde UK soul and jazz band ephemerals.
With ephemerals he toured the world and attracted a fervent following (as well as many millions of streams). Alongside ephemerals he also performed and wrote for French hip hop and soul legend GUTS after a chance meeting when they played the same stage at Glastonbury.
Having made the decision to write and record under his own name, Wolfgang assembled a crack team of players from across his previous projects and began writing and recording in the UK with his predominantly Bristol based band.
An EP in 2023 and a series of incredible singles in 2024 have followed, leading us to his debut LP – Flawed By Design. The album is a powerful and introspective look at human frailty and musically straddles the lines between soul, jazz and rock.
The album opens with Sun Don’t Shine a song that questions the strength of a relationship though bad times while at the same time delivering one of the sing along choruses of the summer.
Soul classic Cyclone follows leading to the powerful Love Yourself (the title track of Wolf’s debut EP). The abrasive horns and powerful lyrics of Keep Your Head Up give us an idea of social consciousness being one of the album’s themes and this is cemented by Where is the Peace – a protest song written in the wake of French riots and questioning the authorities of his adopted country’s attitudes to minorities.
Side two opens with the slow paced love song I’ll Be Your Prey before the anti-commercialisation anthem Almighty $$ lifts the album back up into the stratosphere.
The dark and gothic Shadows leads into Paris, a love song to Wolfgang’s adopted home. Penultimate song Baptist – a sprawling and theatrical epic set in a decadent night at a Parisian bar, documents the author’s struggles in keeping his head above water. Set to a New Orleans style funeral march with religious iconography in abundance, the song showcases Wolfs soaring vocals at their most intense.
On any other album Baptist would have to be the finale but here, it’s only the set up for the album title track. The last song starts with a solo bass line before swelling to strings, drums and horns and of course THAT unmistakable vocal assuring us that we are built to be perfect but flawed by design.
LINKS:
https://linktr.ee/wolfgang.valbrun
https://www.facebook.com/Wolfgang.Valbrun
https://www.instagram.com/wolfgangvalbrunofficial/
https://wolfgangvalbrun.bandcamp.com/
