There has been quite a fuss about Dwele and his debut album on online like for the internet radio station soul24-7.com and one could've guessed that a new saviour of soul music is about to emerge. Finally Dwele, which is just a short version of his first name Andwele (which means 'God has brought me' in Swahili), got a record deal with Virgin Records America and his debut album Subject is now widley available. But can he really fulfil the hype surrounding this release?
Subject isn't a bad album, in fact it's very good but not a re-invention of soul music either. It's more a development what people like D'Angelo, Musiq or Bilal have already come up with and so Dwele's music is a pleasant example of neo/nu soul with Dwele writing/co-writing his own material and producing most of the songs here on offer an furthermore he also plays trumpet, piano, bass and guitar.
The stand-out cut for me is the slow, dreamy jazz-influenced ballad Kick Out Of You since it shows that Dwele can be versatile and is not just another nu soul clone.
But then, I really can't argue with the great and funky midtempo Find A Way, that was released as first single, or the catchy Money Don't Mean A Thing. Actually, the rest is very pleasant and it's hard to pick another favourite song besides Kick Out Of You without doing the others an injustice.
Altogether Dwele is a very competent singer/songwriter and musician and Subject could be the start of a promising career if his record label is willing to invest some time and money.