Sweet culmination. Sweet Relief. Sweet, sweet soul. Aaron Taylor’s The Long Way Home is here at last.

 

It’s not that we were caught off guard by the release. Taylor has been consistently dropping lead-up singles since he first gave us Saw You In My Dreams – the project’s opener – nine months ago. In fact, when we spoke with him back in March, he told us he was en route to a Summer release. And yet, here we are, not necessarily caught off guard, but still certainly surprised by the essence of his work.

 

The Long Way Home has been a long time coming. The additive finale of almost a year’s worth of telling, neo-soul singles, the project has collected itself as a sum far, far greater than its already heavy parts. Taylor’s mastery for storytelling and emotional relatability is put front and center in every single track, but when placed all together, interestingly enough in the order of their original pre-project release, a larger dialogue unfolds. 

 

Love. Lust. Loss. Love Again. The usual stuff. 

 

But nothing about it is usual. Taylor is here for the classicists who love crisp analogue imperfection. Even his most digital of elements are done in a way that makes the project feel timeless. As closely related to a George-Clinton spectrum of funk as it is to a D’Angelo modern soul transcendence and an occasionally clubby project from the genius of some Brit’s garage, The Long Way Home is as broad as it is bold, and is one of the most enjoyable, applicable, relatable, and downright listenable projects of the year. 

 

All praise and congratulations to Aaron Taylor for the kind of project we should all come to expect from the transcendent neo-soul spectrum of a timeless modernity.