There is a gamble one takes when one ventures into the often-saturated landscape of cover albums. It is devilishly easy for artistic reinterpretation to default into karaoke-adjacent reverence or contrarian deconstruction. However, this is not the case with J’Something’s Indoor, which emerges as a fascinating study of cultural synthesis. The Mi Casa frontman’s latest opus traverses genre and interrogates the very nature of musical inheritance in a post-global age, where a Portuguese-born South African artist can seamlessly thread Judy Garland through Afro-Tech and Afro-Pop sensibilities and emerge with something startlingly coherent.
Born from lockdown’s enforced introspection, Indoor could have easily become another pandemic-era bedroom project, heavy on nostalgia and light on innovation. Instead, J’Something leverages isolation’s contemplative potential to excavate the interconnected roots of his musical DNA. The result is a nine-cover odyssey that functions as both a personal mixtape and musical meditation on cross-cultural pollination.
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The album opens with a deliberate provocation: Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted” stripped of its Finneas-produced electronic architecture. By reducing this Gen-Z nightmare to its acoustic bones, thematically exploring the perils of fame and the misery that’s on the opposite end of receiving everything one desires; J’Something reveals the timeless skeleton beneath her contemporary flesh. It’s a clever entry point that establishes the album’s core thesis: that all music, regardless of era or origin, speaks to universal human experiences.
This theoretical framework is stress-tested most successfully in his treatment of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The decision to recast this soul standard through an Afro-Pop lens is an alchemical transmutation which challenges the parameters of the aesthetic and the archaeological by unearthing the African roots lurking beneath American soul music and returns them to the continent transformed. The interpolation of “Lovely Day” in the outro is equally homage and a meditation on Black music’s circular journey across the Atlantic and back, creating a temporal collapse where past and present slow dance together in the dark.
The album’s most technically ambitious moment arrives with “Butterflies,” where J’Something attempts the near-impossible: channelling Michael Jackson without drowning in mimicry. His success lies in understanding that Jackson’s genius wasn’t in the vocal pyrotechnics but in the tension between technical precision and emotional vulnerability. J’Something’s version maintains this delicate balance, adding layers of harmonies that feel less like ornamentation and more like emotional scaffolding.
Stream Butterflies here:
Not every reinterpretation lands with equal force. The transformation of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” into a smouldering slow jam, while competent, occasionally feels like a solution in search of a problem. Similarly, his soft-rock/Afro-Pop hybrid take on “Over The Rainbow” struggles to escape the gravitational pull of its own ambition, though it’s rescued by production choices that wisely emphasize texture over technique.
The album finds its surest footing when J’Something turns his gaze toward South African musical heritage. His version of Stimela’s “Zwakala” serves as a history lesson and a love letter; maintaining the original’s revolutionary spirit while updating its sonic palette for contemporary ears. This cultural synthesis reaches its apex in the acoustic rendering of Mi Casa’s “Church Bells,” where J’Something’s personal history of cross-cultural romance becomes a metaphor for South Africa’s own journey of traditional integration.
Stream “Church Bells” here:
The decision to close with a reimagined version of De Mthuda and Njelic’s Amapiano hit “Shesha Geza” is particularly inspired. By filtering South Africa’s most exciting contemporary genre through his distinctive Afro-Pop sensibility, J’Something completes the album’s circular journey from global to local and back again. It’s a powerful statement about the cyclical nature of influence and innovation in African music.
What elevates Indoor above mere pandemic-era pastiche is J’Something’s understanding that musical heritage isn’t a museum piece to be preserved under glass—it’s a living document that demands constant reinterpretation. Each track functions as both tribute and transformation, acknowledging debts while advancing the conversation. We exist in a time where streaming algorithms have flattened musical discovery into an endless path, and amid the musical madness, masters of craftsmanship like J’Something make a compelling case for intentional curation and thoughtful recontextualization.
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The production throughout maintains a careful balance between acoustic intimacy and studio polish, creating a sonic environment that feels both immediate and considered. The arrangements, while occasionally safe, serve the songs rather than overshadowing them, allowing J’Something’s interpretive choices to remain the focus.
Indoor ultimately succeeds as a cover album and a thesis on musical inheritance in the streaming age. It poses complex questions about authenticity, tradition, and cross-cultural exchange while never forgetting that its primary purpose is to move both body and soul. In doing so, J’Something positions himself as not just an interpreter of classics but as a crucial node in the endless network of musical influence—proving that the best way to honour tradition is to keep it in constant motion.
Listen to Indoor here: https://vmgafrica.lnk.to/IndoorAr?dm_i=55MA,OHG1,8Y8PSF,2VEJ2,1
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