Incentive La Marvellous – Singles
Incentive La Marvellous – Singles Review
Ayyy would you look at that…we’ve got some homegrown talent on our pages here today! From what I can gather from the information out there on the internet & assuming it’s all up to date – Incentive La Marvellous is coming to us from around the Victoria area, a ferry ride away to Vancouver Island from where we are based out of here in the lower mainland. Always great to learn about another local name in the game, and we’ve got six tracks here from throughout his catalog to help ya get to know who ILM is and what he’s all about. He’s been doin’ what he does for quite some time already, with tracks online that stretch back to nearly a decade ago…and like any artist in that situation, you can find the peaks and valleys that naturally occur throughout the course of a career, but for the most part I really like what I hear in what he’s creating already, and I think there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about what he’s been working on for his upcoming second record. For now, let’s check out this sample of six singles…
I started out by listening to his track called “My Only One,” which also has a couple of videos out there supporting this single visually for ya as well. What I appreciated more than anything about this introduction to the music of La Marvellous was the high degree of uniqueness in the material overall – you don’t really find too much out there that sounds like this particular track, and I always enjoy hearing artists & bands that are willing to take the path less traveled. There’s real art and craft in a sound like “My Only One” has, and while it does still borrow a few elements from the past to make something new for ya in the present…that’s fairly true of just about all music really. The point I’m making is that you won’t hear Incentive bending his style or compromising it in order to fit into what’s already out there on a million playlists today, and ultimately, I think that pays off in the end. It can be harder to get listeners to latch onto uniqueness at first, but if you’re patient and stay the course, the audience will become fiercely loyal over time and become excited about the versatility & diversity to be found. “My Only One” is pretty solid all-around, and considering it’s all done DIY from the performance to the production on it, I think it’s a track that La Marvellous can certainly be proud of. It’s got a little bit of that vibe you get in listening to early 90s Hip-Hop or R&B where the artist would break it down & be like, ‘Girrrrrrrrrrrrl…you know that other man can’t do nothin’ for you…’ etc. etc. – we’ve all kind of heard that stuff throughout music’s history in different ways, but I felt like what Incentive has here is actually closer to the vibe of Spoken Word than some kind of cheesy old-school comparison…he’s pushing the art forward, so I’m cool with it. Musically, there’s depth and tangible emotion what you’ll hear, and that counts for a lot in my world…there’s tension, drama, passion…all the right elements on display that make an impact on our ears in “My Only One” – it definitely gave me a great impression of what ILM is capable of, the kind of skills he’s got, and his desire to approach making music like the art that it truly is.
When it comes to “A Lover’s Ballad,” I felt like I was immediately impressed by the way that ILM was able to thread the natural ambience of thunder & rain into the intro, and I felt like I was interested in the music pretty quickly here. Now…I don’t think I’d go as far as to say that’s where my interest stopped altogether, but the rest of the track to follow made it tougher to examine. I honestly don’t know how I felt about the main hook if I’m being real with ya. I’d listen, and part of me felt like it just needed more surrounding it in the music from the low end side of the sound, other times I’d listen and feel like the chorus hook still wasn’t going to be quite enough even at its max potential, and then I had a few spins where I felt like I could at least acknowledge that it could still be memorable. Verse-wise, Incentive’s got that kind of like, Fort Minor-like delivery to how he flows through this track…I ain’t opposed to that, but I also felt like my most significant beef with “A Lover’s Ballad” was that it feels like La Marvellous is still searching for the right energy to make this whole cut come together as it should. To a degree, I like the performance he gives because it’s like you can hear that he’s feeling the moment, and I dig that – but the flip side of that same coin is that I found myself wanting to hear a bit more of a confident attack at times too, you know what I mean? I guess what I’m saying is that he plays this one almost dangerously laidback when it comes to his performance on the m-i-c in my personal opinion, but I’d readily acknowledge it could be that same level of low-key swag that could get people listening too. There’s something here in “A Lover’s Ballad” overall…it’s a downtrodden tune, so I get that he probably doesn’t want to amp it up too much to take away from that, but it still needs a bit of passion behind its punch.
“Shoulda Seen That Comin” is a much more recent track from ILM’s catalog, which still needs a bit of work if it’s going to be out there for the masses to consume. In the same respect as with what we heard on “A Lover’s Ballad” just prior, I think it just feels like the keys/synth are coming through a bit too bright in comparison to the rest, which ends up making “Shoulda Seen That Comin” a little too thin when it comes to the ingredients it contains. Taking the time to keep developing a more all-encompassing musical atmosphere and the balance between the light & the dark in the sound will benefit these songs that Incentive is rockin’ and it will also serve the bittersweet themes of his songwriting through contrast. Right now, when you get to the hook and the music together, it’s like bright on bright, treble on treble, and a more noticeable presence from the low-end will help his tunes not feel it’s not too much of a match between the elements he’s choosing to use. What makes “Shoulda Seen That Comin” a harder song to critique is that vocally, you can hear there’s an imbalance goin’ on that reveals both how well Incentive is capable of singing, without quite holding himself to the highest of his standards throughout the entirety of the song, you know what I mean? It’s not an issue of him not being able to sing – you can hear some significant highlights in this one cut alone that confirms he can – but you can also hear some spots where he doesn’t quite come across as strong as he should too…and that’s ultimately going to make listeners question his commitment if he’s not too careful. To me, “Shoulda Seen That Comin” has its most questionable moments towards its beginning, and the longer it plays on for, the more it seems to bring out of Incentive as he gets invested into the melody and starts creating some real highlights before it’s all over. I like the bars as well, those work strong for him…but I also think he’s gotta be a bit more cautious about the repetition of the main melody lines of his music and start switching that up more than he has been. The building blocks are there though – he’s got a really stellar hook written into this single, it’s just a matter of sticking with it, and being objective about what comes back through the speakers until you’re 100% sure you’ve got the maximum potential of the writing in the performance.
“People Say” is one of the most recent tracks that ILM has posted up, and from what I understand, you’ll be able to find that on his upcoming second album, which is rumored to contain his best work so far. I think a lot about what you’ll hear on “People Say” confirms that’s probably true – and I also think you’ll find it addresses a lot of what I’d been saying regarding the thin sound of some of those previous tunes here in review, by supplying a much more robust low-end to support him along the way in this single. That’s how ya know I’ve been real with him the whole time folks – I just call things like I hear’em…I’m never trying to be disrespectful, and I’m always mindful of the fact that music means a whole lot to the people that create it – but I’ve also learned throughout the years that honesty is the most lacking aspect within independent journalism too. It’s what serves the artists and bands best, and it’s the kind of feedback they’re generally missing, because most people will just tell ya something bland like ‘it’s good’ and move on. I take the deep dives into music, because I genuinely care – but it’s also really nice to find a track like “People Say” that basically makes the entire case I was making for me on an audible level. I don’t need to explain to Incentive that this single is on a whole other level than many of the rest I’ve been talking about here, because I know that he knows that already – that’s how apparent the differences are…we can literally all hear the difference. I’m not even here to argue that “People Say” is a better song than the rest…that’s not what I’m saying, not at all…I think La Marvellous has a bunch of strengths in his songwriting when it comes right down to it – and now we’re starting to hear that he’s got the execution to match when it comes to the production & finer details. “People Say” is interesting and somewhat of a hybrid – it’s got a West Coast sound to it that’s essentially stripped right outta the origins of the G Funk era, and you’ve got ILM’s R&B/Hip Hop/Pop combination that he brings to the vocals. Is it perfect? If it’s not, it’s pretty damn close y’all…we can get super technical and pick apart super small details if you wanna, but I’d prefer to leave it at saying this is the best cut I’ve heard from the man to this point on this playlist of singles, and a massively encouraging sign for his future ahead.
When I got to “Shining Star,” my very first thought was, ‘okay – this proves the guy has ALWAYS had the magic’ – because this cut is coming from his debut album Love Over Lust, released back in 2019 and it’s the very first track on the record. Talk about putting your best foot forward! “Shining Star” absolutely rivals what I felt like I heard in “People Say” when it comes to the quality of the production and sound, but when it comes to performance, this is a highly focused version of the main star of this show. Easily one of the best tracks I’ve heard from ILM’s vocals, and it’s a song I would definitely think that a lot of listeners will respond to. Like, I’d listen to this track any day of the week – I feel like “Shining Star” shows us some of the very best that Incentive has to offer our playlists…and I’m freakin’ here for it! So to me, based on some of the ups and downs we’ve ridden through to get to this point in listening to his music, my recommendation to the guy is to take his time and be as brutally objective as he’s capable of being…because THIS is the quality we wanna hear from the man right here. I’m massively impressed with “Shining Star” and how balanced this whole track is…the bars are solid, the music is jazzy, the hooks connect authentically…this opening track has the caliber and quality you don’t often find on a debut. All I’m saying to ILM is to focus, and keep an ear on making sure what he puts out reaches this kind of level – don’t rush the material, don’t be afraid to get back in the booth if a song needs another run through, and most importantly, don’t settle for anything that doesn’t reach the sparking standards he’s clearly capable of. “Shining Star” is the kind of cut most artists would hope they could write at least once in the course of an entire career, and to think this is where La Marvellous started…it’s seriously impressive yo.
He’s got the advantage of a little hindsight now of course…it’s not like he needs my opinion to confirm that tracks like “Shining Star” or “Leave You Lonely” from his first record worked out – Love Over Lust was released five years ago in 2019…so trust me, Incentive already knows these cuts came out strong. In the context of this sample of six tracks I’ve got here in review, and learning about the man’s journey from where things started on this debut record, to where he’s at now in producing, recording, mixing and writing his own material on tracks like “My Only One” – he’s got the blueprint and knows what he’s looking to get out of what he creates to keep you entertained. It’s all about adjustments y’all. Where he started on Love Over Lust, he was being professionally produced – and now he’s going in a more DIY direction by handling his own business from both sides of the studio boards. Sometimes, as you can see through the ups & downs of the results in what we’ve heard in this review, you have to take a couple steps back in order to move forward…but with the right amount of patience, you tend to come out even stronger on the other side by taking your time to understand & learn the entire process. I’ve got mad respect for Incentive taking the initiative to really dig into his craft – in the long run, it’s gonna make him an even better artist than he already is. If we’ve gotta go through the occasional cuts like “A Lover’s Ballad” or “Shoulda Seen That Comin” to get to that next significant breakthrough, that’s just kinda how things go y’all…and it’s worth it. You learn just as much or more from things that don’t go perfectly than you will in anything that does, you know what I mean? Tracks like “Shining Star” and the album’s final track “Leave You Lonely” prove this dude has got what it takes and always has…now it’s all about finding ways to replicate his passion, increase his focus, and continue building on the many strengths we’ve heard along the way. I’m confident he can do that…for what it’s worth, he’s got me believing. The more that he refines his craft and refuses to settle for anything that comes out sounding less than his very best, the further this guy is gonna go over the course of his career. “This life can be a trip man,” as he’ll tell ya himself…and he’s right! It’ll be great to hear how he’s evolved his craft on his upcoming album.
Find out everything you need to know about Incentive La Marvellous from his official website at: https://incentivelamarvellous.com
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