Ears Wide Open: Jen Awad

Roy Jurgens on July 6th, 2018

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Jen Awad is a spectacular siren of soul. There really isn’t more that need be said, but we’ll go on. This half-Egyptian, half-Peruvian powerhouse is equal parts molasses and hot sauce, delivering R&B the way the queens of old intended– sweaty, sexy and with plenty of glamour. Her new EP “Love is Dead” is the follow-up to 2016’s “Champagne Confessional,” which featured the disco thumper “Shackle Up.” The title track is smooth like crushed velvet, recalling the best of broken-hearted ’60s soul while keeping things fresh and not lazily relying on the nostalgia of that era. She isn’t breaking any ground here, and, yes, someone done her wrong, a story told a thousand times before, but her songs are delivered with Spector-ian Wall of Sound-type dynamics that a lot of millennial acts swing and miss at. She’s painfully remorseful in relating how she taught someone how to “Break a Man,” she’s channeling Amy Winehouse in “Thirsty,” and she’s being vulnerable in “Wave of Depression,” which wouldn’t have been out of place in Carole King’s back catalog.

Awad’s glam element is best devoured live, as her eight-piece band is not only ripped musically, but deliciously garbed in Awad other’s obsession: fashion. In addition to breaking hearts as a diva, Awad is a successful fashion designer, running her namesake line as well as a male line called “900.”

||| Stream: The “Love Is Dead” EP