Jaguar Wright:
Divercing Neo 2 Marry Soul

Release Date: 11 July 2005

Reviewed By: GE Torto

1. Dear John - Part One

2. Free

3. Let Me Be The One

4. Timing

5. Told Ya

6. My Place

7. Flower

8. Ecstasy

9. So High

10. Been Here Before

11. Woman 2 Woman

12. Do Your Worst

13. One More Drink

14. Dear John - Part Two

The Game - The Documentary
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The play on words evident in the title of Jaguar Wright’s most recent effort, automatically suggests that therein lies a message of defiance where the genre neo soul is concerned. If ‘Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul’ were a relationship, Jaguar Wright would be a grower – the one you’re not too sure about, but once committed you really begin to appreciate for its essence of difference. 

In an album immersed in emotion, Jaguar’s nasal dulcet tones float delicately over heartfelt tracks such as ‘Let Me Be The One’, where through juxtaposition Jaguar balances both the serious and light aspects of her role in a relationship. 

The musical contrast within the album is no better demonstrated than the inclusion of The Clipse’s familiar hip hop beat on ‘Timing’. Here Jaguar switches her musical direction adopting a club anthem to express her condemnation of a past lover. 

Although Jaguar Wright omits to include the vocal presence of any other artists, admittedly in an attempt to proclaim her musical independence, the signature production of neo soul pioneer Raphael Saadiq is clearly detectable to the trained ear on ‘Told Ya’. With a punchy bass and hypnotic melodic repetitiveness, Jaguar is able to tell an “I-told-you-so-sister” story and simultaneously demonstrate some of the subtle nuances within her already distinctive voice. And the distinctive factor isn’t limited to Wright’s empowered voice. The inimitable Kula Shaker-reminiscent sitar inclusion in the soulful ‘My Place’, the emotive strings and piano chords not too dissimilar from R. Kelly’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ in ‘Flower’, and the musical phrasing structured around a minor scale in the verses of ‘Ecstacy’ are but just a few musical pleasures that make Jaguar Wright more than just another soul voice entwined with a message based on past experiences and self-opinion.  

For all the detail placed on the musical element from the play on words of the record’s title, to the realness of Jaguar’s self-written lyrics, there remains a lack of fluidity within the album as a whole. Tracks such as ‘Been Here Before’, ‘So High’, and ‘Woman To Woman’, initially offer much promise but fail to add much to Jaguar’s claim to musical autonomy from a genre littered with artists proclaiming to be unique and individual. 

‘Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul’ is a raw, heartfelt expression filled with power and passion that is synonymous with soul whatever its label. Yet in an attempt to remove herself from the cluttered niche of neo soul, the album loses direction and instead of becoming a collection of tracks varied in sound but harmonious in content, ‘Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul’ ends up as an assortment of differing spectrums of soul music with very little but Jaguar’s voice in common throughout. 

Individual tracks such as ‘Told Ya’, ‘Ecstacy’, ‘One More Drink’, ‘Flower’ and ‘My Place’ remain highlights that make this album worth a listen and make Jaguar Wright more than a mere peripheral asset to the wider compass of modern soul music. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 

Favourite tracks:

Told Ya

Flower

My Place

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