When keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and producer PJ Morton is not touring with pop musical act Maroon 5, he is busy creating and releasing solo music under his own label, Morton Records. His latest, Gumbo, recorded at New Orleans’ own Parlor Studios, draws on a wide range of influences from R&B, soul, funk, and hip-hop, and touches on greater issues like love, politics, religion, and nature of the music industry. These various motifs, both lyrical and melodic, supplement the pacing of Gumbo by foreshadowing the next track by either introducing some aspect of the lyrics of instrumentation before transitioning into the next track.

Gumbo opens with ‘First Began,’ originally released on Sticking To My Guns EP (2016); this track highlights Morton’s soulful voice as he sings about wanting a stagnant relationship to go back to how it was in the beginning, which is an idea that could be applied to Morton’s career as well as relationships. The opening track’s outro grooves nicely with snaps and claps before abruptly ending. "Claustrophobic" picks up the energy with its melodic bass line and hip-hop drumbeat as a foundation for Morton’s internal conversation about being restricted by a mainstream label executive’s idea for how Morton’s music should sound. Morton employs the help of an up-and-coming New Orleans-based rapper, Pell, to bring a hip-hop dynamic to Gumbo and introducing a songwriting topic to Morton’s wheelhouse.

"Claustrophobic" ends and immediately transitions into ‘Sticking To My Guns’, a really funky mixture of organ, bass, and guitar on top of a New Orleans-style street beat, a reaction to the restrictiveness described in the previous "Claustrophobic" where Morton sings about being true to originality “’til the work is done,” an attitude that seems to have been working for Morton. The spoken word outro in “Sticking To My Guns,” which precedes the topic of the next chorus-heavy track “Religion,” discusses how humans commit tragedies “in the name of God” when really “God has nothing to do what we are doing.”

Gumbo concludes with a refreshing cover of Bee Gees’ hit “How Deep Is Your Love.” Morton’s vocal style lends itself well to capturing soulful harmonies and falsetto singing that honors the Bee Gees, but puts a more soulful spin on the track. Gumbo is a diverse record, both musically and lyrically, and while it borrows some of the classic soul and R&B formulas, it uses them to create a record that breaks out of that shell.

Gumbo is available on CD and mp3 from PJ Morton’s official store, Google Play, Spotify, and iTunes.