Sunday Best

Nick Jonas が約5年ぶり5作目となるスタジオアルバム『Sunday Best』で帰還!
2021年の『Spaceman』に続く本作は、ニックが教会の聖歌隊で歌っていた青春時代からインスピレーションを得つつ、歌詞では夫や父親としての現在の人生経験を掘り下げた内容となる。

Nick Jonas finds himself in a reflective, deeply felt mood on his fifth solo album, 2026s Sunday Best. A star since childhood with the Jonas Brothers, the singer has matured over the years, a creative growth that found him embracing slick funk and adult-contemporary pop. While still marked by a mature sophistication, Sunday Best is his softest, and most emotionally candid and heartfelt album. Working with a small group of collaborators, including JP Saxe, MUNAs Josette Maskin, Blush, and Ryan Daly, Jonas crafts intimate, often acoustic ballads drawn from his everyday life with odes to his wife and daughter, and, as on the opening "Sweet to Me," even a song about living with diabetes (a chronic condition he was diagnosed with at age 13). While this could be sad, Jonas is never melancholy. On the contrary, his voice resonates with a warm gratitude for everything life has thrown his way, good or bad. On "Handprints," he grips on to small family moments, singing "Winters a season away/And you hate the cold, so Im asking the leaves if theyd kindly not change/I know, know in the back of my mind/Nothing is ever the same." Similar to his brother Joes work on 2025s Music for People Who Believe in Love, theres a hint of contemporary country (not to mention, slight twang in his vocals) in songs like "Gut Punch," the orchestral-tinged "You Got Me," and "I Need You" -- all of which underscore his Dallas, Texas roots. Still, there are hooky pop moments, as on the clubby dance-rocker "Seeing Ghosts," the 60s soul of "Hope," and the sultry, Prince-esque ballad "Aphrodite." More than a tastefully bespoke production, Sunday Best is an album of stripped-down and affecting emotional honesty. ~ Matt Collar