De’Wayne is a pop star in the making. His third release June is a musical bait teeming with hooky earworms that no one – irrespective of their musical affiliation – can possibly resist. June has the hallmark of a fantastic pop-rock record with its flamboyantly loud music, pristine production, and charismatic vocals that would appeal to any judge on the hit television series The Voice, and one that can sing anything from soul, funk, rock, indie pop, to pure pop with the weightlessness and joy of singing in the privacy of one’s own shower.
The lyrics, which are easily relatable – although a bit grating sometimes – favor the directness of pop music over the mystery of imagery, making them easily hummable without one even realizing, like: “There she goes, my love raider. With a grin like a crusader. Eat you up and spit you out later. Ain’t nobody stopping this feral animal.” Or, “You put a spell on me, somehow you tricked my heart. You gave me ecstasy, while I trip in the dark.”
De’Wayne certainly puts all of his creative muscle into the poetry in the music versus the poetry in the lyrics, and it is very wise of him to do so. Who cares how the words sound if the music is this good! In a mere 37 minutes, De’Wayne checks off genres with the casualness of checking off items in his shopping list while he is doing groceries…and every minute of this is totally entertaining and all around fabulous.
While name-dropping artists like Prince and Lenny Kravitz is way too convenient while comparing talent, there is no better vocabulary to describe De’Wayne’s elevated artistry that he exhibits with the same confidence and swagger as these two pop legends on this record. It is hard to picture a future De’Wayne as anything but a pop star.
