2Faced Ft Shay Jones – You and I Gotta’ Love (Single Review)

Today’s review features the band 2Faced and their new single “You and I Gotta’ Love” featuring Shay Jones on the lead vocals.

This project has its birth in Chicago in 1983, a collaboration between Kevin Paul and Mark Selden (i.e. 2Faced). They enlisted the help of some of Chicago’s best vocalists, along with keyboardist Bene Spizz.

The artists note that “During the 1980s, the city (Chicago) was a melting pot of musical innovation, blending the deep-rooted sounds of blues with emerging currents like post-punk, creating a unique cultural movement that shaped the music world.” The duo dubbed the masters “The Soto Sound Sessions” and state that the masters “were lost for decades,” but were recently “discovered in storage.” They plan to release updated versions of the songs on these master tapes under the 2Faced name and will include some legends in the Chicago music scene, including Audrey Johnson, Bobby Parisio, and Terry Wells. The current single features Shay Jones.

So let’s have a listen …

Right away, the lead guitar riff reminds me of Living Colour and their hit song Cult of Personality from the late 80s, which, given the fact that the master for this new single was “lost for decades,” makes sense. The lead guitar riff sells the song for me. Then enter the vocals – Shay Jones has an incredibly nice female voice, and her vocal performance is dead on. The performances on this track are top-flight. There is a lot of noise in the track, which dampens the expectations on the production side.

The only thing that keeps me from rating this song as Outstanding is that I’m not sure the vocal in the chorus “You and I gotta’ love” is memorable enough as a hook, despite it being delivered so nicely by Ms. Jones. Maybe if it was repeated? I do think the guitar riff is really memorable, though. I also think the track has too much noise getting in the way of some killer performances by the musicians. Overall, this song is Excellent, and I have listened to it on repeat. It’s a catchy tune that should open some doors.

SCORE/Excellent: 2Faced and Shay Jones deliver a bombshell of a track with their new song “You and I Gotta’ Love”. The song has echoes of the late 80s and early 90s band Living Colour and their song Cult of Personality. The lead guitar riff in this song is very catchy, and Jones’ lead vocals are enthralling. This song should open some doors for the band with audiences and record labels. Much love, Beth

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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