"His big break finally arrived last year: " Soft Spot," a snazzy club throwback from 2023, went viral, and more songs from his back catalog have followed. On ...it's only about u if you think it is., he sets his sights on a different alternative, mining the trendy '90s moodboard of Radiohead, Portishead, and the Smashing Pumpkins while maintaining his practiced cool."
"Essential to the pull of "Soft Spot" was its director's-cut music video, in which JMSN-a spindly, buzz-cut, sweaty white man-gyrates unapologetically to the song's Atlanta-bass beat on a packed dancefloor, staring right through the camera. With a pitched-up falsetto that mirrors other hyperreal TikTok R&B hits, the song wants to whisk us back to an era when the fleshy pleasures of pop music hadn't yet been smothered by the passivity of streaming and kinetic male charisma could speak for itself."
JMSN has spent more than a decade crafting a zigzagging career that began fronting Love Arcade, included an aborted Universal Motown solo attempt, and produced 2012's self-produced Priscilla. He has guested with Kendrick (2012) and Babyface Ray (2025), participated in Soulection circles, and apprenticed in R&B jam history with a formalist streak. A 2023 viral hit, "Soft Spot," revived interest in his back catalog and showcased a kinetic music-video persona and pitched-up falsetto. On ...it's only about u if you think it is., he channels '90s alt-rock touchstones while retaining practiced cool, yielding mixed but occasionally compelling results.
Read at Pitchfork
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