Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud

On his fourth Boulevards album, Jamil Rashad keeps backsliding Jeffrey Daniel-style across the R&B timeline and pivots to do the cosmic slop. Where the Raleigh natives first couple LPs most frequently recalled sparkling post-disco R&B of the early 80s -- Daniels Shalamar were one of many reference points -- Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud builds on the 60s and 70s funk and soul moves of his third full-length. The 2020-issued Brother! EP turns out to have been a prelude more than a stopgap. Those four songs were written and produced by Rashad with Blake Rhein (of Durand Jones & the Indications), and Rhein here is deeply involved, as is fellow multi-instrumentalist/producer Colin Croom (of Twin Peaks), while smaller roles are filled by other vintage-sound specialists who are either members or associates of acts such as Black Pumas and Yola. Rashad is too lucid to be a truly spaced cowboy like Sly Stone, and isnt as animated as Bootsy Collins, but the work of those two artists -- and Parliament-Funkadelic -- clearly inform what Rashad has on offer. This is altogether the grimiest and moodiest Boulevards album with Rashad and company somehow maintaining a high level of appeal. Also different from previous Boulevards albums, Rashad sings with restraint the whole time, giving each line an air of secrecy and/or seduction -- almost as if hes self-conscious about breaking an unreasonable noise ordinance. The approach is fitting, with Rashad riding just above the warmly reverberant grooves and background voices to heady effect. ~ Andy Kellman