James Cole drops new Single

In his latest single, “Type of Guy,” crossover hip-hop singer/songwriter James Cole redefines his style and pens a swinging ballad befitting of a bumpin’ club soundtrack just as much as it is a casual pop playlist. For those who aren’t already aware of this 18-year-old phenom’s recent works, Cole has been experiencing a whirlwind summer with a sleeper hit in “Cali Queen” and now the debut of “Type of Guy,” the latter of which embodies the spirit of modern experimental R&B much more than the former does. Those who came looking for a stereotypical, chest-beating stadium-shaker can turn back now because what this artist has made in this new song has almost nothing in common with the mundane sounds of the mainstream.

URL: www.jamescolelive.com

This bassline is pretty physical, and in its boisterous rigidity, it actually conveys a lot of unspoken melancholy that I probably wouldn’t have noticed were it not stylized the way that it was. It’s not so big that it would shatter the windows in your car, but it’s got enough beefiness to keep electronic pop fans engaged amidst all of the rhythmic textures that come flooding out of the other instruments in the track.

The yearning that we hear in Cole’s lead vocal is amplified by the vague echo of the beats here, and although I don’t think that he needed to put as much space between them as he did, I can see where he was probably trying to give the melodic nucleus in “Type of Guy” some extra room to captivate us closer to the midway point in the song. Everything about this track was deliberately arranged to push us to the edge of our seats regardless of how many times we’ve heard the hook, and that’s not an easy task for any artist to pull off (let alone a teenage novice).

I would have liked to hear a little more varnish on the chorus in “Type of Guy,” but those who appreciate a DIY feel to their indie hip-hop will find this part of the mix to be one of the more eclectic and stimulating junctures of the song. You can’t accuse James Cole of minimizing a juggernaut in this single, but I do think there’s a good chance that this composition could be extended into a jam that would have everyone from dance addicts to stereo-worshiping audiophiles moving in perfect synchronicity with the rhythm of the verses in a crowded concert hall.

SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4Pr56th2D1HtWxLWRv9hBB?si=_Wq6iMa5QNmEUNoEmP9skQ

After listening to this new single from James Cole, I’m even more determined to see him live sometime soon. He’s got such an amazing energy about him, such an approachable tone of voice that it’s almost like he was born to take over center stage and the bright spotlight that comes with it. “Type of Guy” is another hit in a string of really entrancing releases from Cole, and if it manages to get into steady rotation anywhere on the American FM dial this month, I would bet everything I’ve got on his sound entering the mainstream consciousness within the next year or two.

Michael Rand