Mayer Hawthorne – Just Ain't Gonna Work Out

What a bastard. Not only is he dumping her, but he’s doing so through ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’, a song so ridiculously wonderful that it will make her fall deeper and deeper into the unfathomable well of love. I wanted to write this review without using the word croon, but dammit, Mayer Hawthorne is just so good that he’s even made crooning cool.
Opening with some smooth talking, the 29 year old’s buttery vocals carry the essence of the song backed up by slow beats, tell tale signs of a youth spent tuned into the soul and jazz radio stations of Detroit. Delivered with sophistication and elegance ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’ is an intimate caress of a track.
I was thinking how this is what Mark Ronson would want to sound like if he could write his own songs rather than just steal other people’s, when an investigation of Mayer’s Myspace revealed that Mark Ronson is a fan, professing Mr Hawthorne to be ‘fucking brilliant’ on his East Village radio show. Well what do you know.
Full of temptations for the album ‘A Strange Arrangement’ ‘Just Ain’t Workin Out’ is a song of hazy mornings and tear filled evenings, warm sunshine and long roads ahead.
Signed to Stones Throw Records, Mayer Hawthorne combines the hip hop and soul that the label is renowned for. There’s no denying that the words vintage and retro will be bandied about, but Mayer’s talent is in sounding fresh and blinded by the new dawn. In his pillaging and borrowing from the past he has created an excited future of music.
Oh yeah, and it’s been pressed on heart shaped red vinyl. Cute.
http://www.noizemakesenemies.co.uk/review-mayer-hawthorne-just-ain%E2%80%99t-gonna-work-out