Leon Thomas was sitting on his front room flooring in 2022, barely excessive, watching his canine and cat scrap.
His untrained canine took a swipe from the cat and pulled this face. Responsible. Confused. Which means properly however messing up anyway. Thomas noticed himself.
That second turned “MUTT,” the title monitor from his second album that dropped in August 2024.
After years ghost-writing hits for Ariana Grande and SZA, he lastly stepped entrance and centre with one thing that sounds nothing like modern R&B radio. And thank god for that.
The Manufacturing: Correct Funk, Not Nostalgia
Phelps and Freaky Rob constructed this monitor round a Bootsy Collins-style bassline that’s thick, syrupy, and completely filthy. The type of bass you are feeling in your chest earlier than you correctly hear it.
Actual stay drums all through. No programmed shortcuts, no entice hi-hats twitching each two seconds. Simply correct instrumentation that breathes and strikes.
Thomas recorded his vocal in a single take. You’ll be able to hear the spontaneity bleeding by.
His voice sits on this hazy house between stoned confession and real vulnerability.
The comparability to D’Angelo’s Voodoo classes isn’t beneficiant, it’s correct. That very same free high quality, like he’s working by one thing in actual time slightly than sharpening a closing thought.
Jean-Marie Horvat’s combine deserves reward for what it avoids. No over-reverb fog. No compression flattening the drums. Each factor has room.
The bass stays the place it ought to. Thomas’ voice stays intimate, conversational. It appears like he’s in your bed room at 2am, not reducing a radio-ready single.
The Lyrics: Self-Consciousness With out Self-Pity
“I can’t smoke on reggie, so pardon my bluntness.”
Bizzy Criminal’s contribution, and a fantastic one. The double that means lands cleanly: Thomas received’t smoke low-grade weed, and he received’t soften the reality. It units the tone for every thing that follows.
Thomas, Phelps, Freaky Rob, and Criminal craft lyrics that steadiness wit with trustworthy self-assessment. The canine metaphor has deep roots in Black music.
Elvis had his mascot canine. Parliament had “Atomic Canine.” Snoop constructed a mythology out of it. Drake titled a complete album For All of the Canine.
Thomas’ model feels private. The mutt as somebody who means properly however retains messing up. Blended lineage, figuring it out one mistake at a time.
“I see previous fairly faces, so I acquired hassle trusting” speaks on to relationship in Los Angeles. Face-tuned perfection in every single place. Efficiency as default. Authenticity buried below layers of curation.
The road isn’t attempting to be profound. It’s simply true. He’s documenting what relationship in Hollywood truly appears like.
Then the pre-chorus: “However I’ll let my guard down for you. Stated I’ll be susceptible. So you possibly can break my coronary heart if you wish to.”
That is the place “MUTT” lifts itself previous the canine imagery. Thomas isn’t clinging to bravado. He’s acknowledging the pull between self-protection and real intimacy. The acquainted panic of opening up once more after being harm.
The second verse will get particular. He references an actual break-in at his Los Angeles house: “Thirty-two, like my pants dimension ’trigger a n***a tried breaking in.”
The element hits as a result of it’s actual. Somebody truly broke into his home. His canine barking. Thomas strolling into the lounge in his underwear and do-rag to discover a grown man sitting on his sofa. That type of uncomfortable actuality sticks.
“Needed to pop a shroom to recreate the sensation, nevertheless it’s by no means the identical as the primary time we did it” raised his mom’s eyebrows.
Thomas attracts a direct line between early relationships and psychedelics. Each alter notion. Each create euphoria you possibly can’t recreate.
He’s not romanticising drug use. He’s describing mind chemistry. The joys hits laborious. The comedown hits tougher. Neither lasts.
Why This Issues: Funk’s Return Route
Thomas’ mother and father carried out in wedding ceremony bands taking part in “Atomic Canine,” so his funk connection isn’t borrowed. It’s inherited.
That issues as a result of trendy R&B moved away from groove fully. Entice minimalism took over. The basslines thinned out. The drums acquired smaller.
“MUTT” exhibits you possibly can carry funk again into 2024 with out turning right into a retro costume. Anderson Paak has flirted with it. Bruno Mars dips into it. Silk Sonic made a complete undertaking out of it.
Thomas retains the groove with out the throwback sheen. It sounds present. It strikes correctly.
You may also like:
The Technique: Persistence Over Hype
Thomas and his supervisor Jonathan Azu averted the same old chase for playlists and radio mass-placement. They let the track develop by touring.
Thomas supported Blxst, then headlined his personal exhibits, watching which moments made the telephones fly up. “MUTT” turned the second.
That endurance feels virtually subversive now. Most artists are informed to maneuver on after six weeks if a single doesn’t explode.
Thomas took the slower route. Lizzo constructed a profession on that concept. “Fact Hurts” wanted time. Some songs merely want room to breathe.
Then got here the NPR Tiny Desk set. Thomas devoted “Breaking Level” to his late grandfather, opera singer John Anthony, earlier than performing “MUTT” with seen emotion.
It didn’t really feel like technique. It felt like somebody processing one thing actual, and audiences responded.
What It Will get Proper
“MUTT” works as a result of Thomas avoids shortcuts. The manufacturing commits to funk with a contemporary pulse. The lyrics steadiness self-awareness with tenderness. The vocal efficiency stays shut and human.
Most significantly, the track sounds totally different. In a panorama filled with minimalist entice templates and whisper-soft bed room pop, Thomas delivers actual drums, fats basslines, and a correct construction that lets the monitor breathe.
His years behind the scenes matter right here. He is aware of what industrial songwriting appears like, however he isn’t chasing the algorithm.
“MUTT” seems like Leon Thomas, not Leon Thomas borrowing another person’s blueprint.
The track captures the messy center of non-public progress. The half the place you discover your patterns and realise you haven’t discovered tips on how to repair them but. That honesty, paired with manufacturing that hits with intent, creates one thing that lingers.
Not excellent. Not polished to oblivion. Simply trustworthy and groovy in equal measure.
R&B may use extra of this. Much less polish. Extra groove. Actual vulnerability as a substitute of performative sensitivity.
Thomas discovered the thought whereas watching his pets battle on the lounge flooring.
Ridiculous second. Wonderful track.
