Jon McLaughlin - OK Now (image from CDUniverse.com)

Artist: Jon McLaughlin
Album title: OK Now
Released: October 2008

Track Listing:

1. Beating My Heart
2. Four Years
3. You Can Never Go Back
4. Things That You Say
5. The Middle
6. You Are The One I Love
7. Always On My Mind
8. Dance Your Life Away
9. Why Am I Talking To You
10. Throw My Love Around
11. We All Need Saving

There’s been a slow influx of new songs from my favorite artists recently, so I’ve been looking for songs from different artists that I find audibly interesting. I was browsing this forum that I am a member of and one of the members was flaunting his/her Jon McLaughlin avatar and signature so I tried searching for his songs over the internet. Of course, most of you might be familiar of his song So Close from Enchanted (with Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams). I have only seen a glimpse of the movie so I never really heard the song until recently, and I must admit that I really admire his voice. This is the kind of voice that I want LOL.

The album incorporates some synthetic sounds in most of its tracks, I guess to make it more mainstream, since we know most of the songs nowadays have tunes that definitely play on our sense of hearing. While there’s no problem with that, I think it overcasts Jon’s ability to play good music with his piano or guitar at his side. Moreover, some of the tracks have sub par lyrics that doesn’t show Jon’s talent in songwriting.

On a different note, the album also has outstanding tracks, most notable are Beating My Heart, Why Am I Talking To You, Throw My Love Around, and We All Need Saving. Beating My Heart is the first single of the album, which is an electropop-inspired song, which kind of reminds me of Keane (and kinda sounds like them too). Why Am I Talking To You shows a jazzy side to Jon and Throw My Love Around is a heartfelt ballad which would make a good hit, only if it were released as a single. The album closer, We All Need Saving, I would say is the best track of the bunch, with his amazing vocals and harmony that will definitely send you to pure bliss, well it’s a sad song, so maybe to tears.

A bit of a trivia here, if you don’t already know, Beyonce’s song Smash Into You was first sung by Jon and was entitled Smack Into You. However, it was dropped from the album when it was released. It’s a shame because his version, in my opinion, is more heartfelt that Beyonce’s. Over all, I’ll give this album a 3.5.