Jon Bellion has surpassed expectations with his new record FATHER FIGURE. The album creatively intertwines stories surrounding growing up, loyalty, raising kids, and commentary on the historic and current familial culture in America. His music has always been a gorgeous blend of R&B, pop, and hip-hop, and this album is no different.
Bellion released his debut album in 2011, and is popularly known for his 2016 hit song “All Time Low.” The track peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. After “All Time Low” put his solo work on the map, Bellion got to work making his next record, Glory Sound Prep. But after it released in 2018, he took a seven-year break from solo work, and focused on producing for others and spending time with family. Now, he’s back with a new transformative project.
Jon Bellion is a wizard in the studio, with a history of producing for artists such as Eminem, Halsey, Christina Aguilera, Justin Bieber, CeeLo Green, and more. Each song he creates is something new and original like you’ve never heard before. Highly creative in his sonic choices and vivid layering, each track he touches becomes an immersive experience that leaves us wanting more.
Bellion has centered this record, his sixth, around his deep-rooted love for his family. Songs “FATHER FIGURE,” “OBLIVIOUS,” and “DON’T SHOOT” speak most directly to his children, while “WASH,” “WASH2,” and “GET IT RIGHT” make up beautiful ballads to his wife.
His new album opens with “HOROSCOPE” feat. Pharrell Williams, a poignant love song about how love is a superpower and transcends limits of reality. Another track, “OBLIVIOUS,” examines love itself through its blissful instrumentation, simple but sincere lyrics, and celestial production. The song leaves the listener with an angelic feeling. And “DON’T SHOOT” is a beautiful piece about the protectiveness of a father.
The album’s title track, “FATHER FIGURE” paints fatherhood in an interesting light through lyrics that actually comment on absent fathers (“You look so sick inside your big Ferrari / You left your kids outside to hit the party / … / Gave up your children just to be somebody). Through this song, Bellion realizes he is trying his best as a dad, and furthermore, commits to continuing to be present for his kids. He confesses comparative lyrics: “I’ll be okay if I’m half the man as you / These boys’ll make it through / I’ll follow after you.” This song certainly speaks to breaking the cycle of generational trauma, and encourages present and caring fatherhood.
“WHY” was written 48 hours before Bellion’s first son was born. The honest track sees a harmonic and verse feature from country star Luke Combs. The first verse, sung by Bellion, discusses his worries over becoming a father. He knows how deeply he’ll love his son, and he fears the days in which a piece of his heart is walking around, given the emotional turmoil Bellion could experience as life goes by, and his son feels pain. This is a theme throughout the album — a deep desire to protect one’s loved ones from ever feeling sad or hurt.
After the acoustic song’s last chord plays, we move into “WASH,” a calming and sonically invigorating piece: “Treat your body like a river, and let it wash all over me.” This song describes the infatuating feeling brought on by deep love. It’s that “I wanna crawl inside your skin so I can be closer to you,” “I’m gonna love you for the rest of my life” kind of love.
The album also sports “WASH2” toward its end, a stripped-back version of the song with an emotional piano line. This version helps spotlight the song’s lyrics. It’s a blessing to our ears to experience both versions of the songs on the album. Together, they encapsulate the duality of love; true love is exciting and invigorating, but it’s also perfectly intimate, beautifully vulnerable and deeply emotional.
In “ITALIA BREEZE,” Bellion makes an homage to his own upbringing and the influential figures that surrounded him as he found his voice. It’s a highly creative track, with many moving parts that culminate to paint the picture of his close Italian family. Throughout this record, Bellion includes snippets of family members talking — in “ITALIA BREEZE,” and also in “VINNY’S ARTICHOKES” (an interlude), and “MY BOY.”
Not only has Bellion been perfecting his vocals from a young age, but the words he chooses to articulate have developed over time into passages that analyze and speak out on current social issues. On this record, “MODERN TIMES” feat. Jon Batiste and “RICH AND BROKE” make commentary on the state of America. “MODERN TIMES” begins with the powerful lyrics, “Meditation or medication / I don’t know anymore / Education, incarceration / I don’t know anymore,” which describe the struggles of many Americans, especially those subject to a system that tries to tear them down. It’s clear Bellion and Batiste care about making a statement on the systemic issues minorities face.
“KID AGAIN” is about Bellion’s relationship with spirituality, as, for him, believing in God makes him feel alive again. It begins, “I’m free when I’m underneath Your light / Jaded and then You opened my eyes / I am a kid again, I could do anything.” The track’s strong lead guitar line feels like a race car, purring through the reverberating exclamation “Anything!” The ad libs in this song also add grit. Sonic experimentation on the words “What happened to your light” make the song feel out-of-this-world, as if another being is looking down observing us.
“GET IT RIGHT” is another standout track on this record. It’s exciting, collaborative, and has an incredible pulse. Featuring verses from Lil’ Mo Mozzarella and Teddy Swims as well as delicious vocals from Clyde Lawrence and Tori Kelly throughout, the track is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. Sonically and lyrically, it’s honest, charming, immersive, and nostalgic. It features an orchestral line in the chorus that adds flair to the overall pulse and emotional build. With an explosion of creativity, the song could be considered a work of literature per the enticing stories it tells throughout.
It’s clear that Bellion puts his all into the music he creates, with a new, beautiful record that helps listeners contemplate emotion, family life, love itself, and the state of the world.
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Great read!
This album is simply outstanding! Love the raw emotion, and diversity of each track