“Love Struck Baby” by Jen Fodor

Emerging from the silence ever so slowly, like a shadow appearing in the moonlight, an instrumental melody is conjured up before our ears as “Love Struck Baby,” the new single from Jen Fodor, begins to play. The beats that soon slide into place and give shape to the rhythm of the song are just as provocative as any of the actual music is, but between the rigid grooves lies the real prize for us to enjoy here – Jen Fodor’s singing.

URL: https://jenfodorpresents.com/

There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles in “Love Struck Baby,” and if you were expecting a lot of synthesized harmonies atop plasticized textures in the drumbeat, you’re going to be pretty disappointed with what this aspiring pop star just produced to help kick off the new era for pop music in style. Hybrids in pop and other corners of the music world might be all the rage right now, on both sides of the Atlantic, but for those of us who just want some straightforwardness in our sonic indulgences, it doesn’t get much better than what this skillful young woman is doing in this single.

The pulsating beat, which is heavily textured (arguably as much so as any of the other components in the track are), is the very soul of the mood in this song, but I wouldn’t say that it steals any of the adrenaline away from the bassline – nor the obvious focal point, which is our singer of course. The details are intricately wound together here; some by Fodor, some by the instrumentation that joins her as the canvas to her brush, but all in all, they’re seamlessly appointed to such a fine degree that we’re never feeling as though the music is getting smooshed together in an attempt at larger-than-life exuberance.

The fact is, Jen Fodor doesn’t need that kind of artificiality to make a big statement with her verses, nor the velvety harmonies that bring them to us so neatly – she’s got the presence that it takes to pull together any loose ends here, and though she’s approached similar concepts before this release, her style of attack sounds a bit more perfected on this particular occasion.

It’s still tough to tell what she would do with a full-length album, but by all counts in her new single “Love Struck Baby,” Jen Fodor gives her biggest fans plenty of reasons to expect some great things from her in the years ahead. She’s defiantly expressive in this song, and her confidence is infectious enough to keep anyone’s attention, no matter what their interest in the pop genre as a whole is.

I get the vibe that Fodor doesn’t want to be known as a specific kind of a singer, but instead just as a powerhouse vocalist who can take great lines on paper and make them into brilliantly touching words in a track – which, to be fair, is exactly what she does in “Love Struck Baby.” I’ll be listening for more soon, as will all who are falling in love with her sound this month.

Mindy McCall