(XL Recordings)Marcus Brown’s second album makes a plea for big feelings in earthy vocals, rolling breakbeats and a contender for song of the summerMarcus Brown is a diehard romantic. His second album as Nourished By Time might be darker and more dystopian than his critically acclaimed debut, but at its core remains a bloody, beating heart. Absorbing and cinematic, The Passionate Ones expands Brown’s unique vision for post-R&B: his aching, tremulous, earthy vocals swim under rolling Baltimore club breakbeats, flickering synths, gated reverb and uncanny looping samples. And all the while, he makes a plea for big feelings in the face of a numbing world.Blaring as if from a busted speaker, opening track Automatic Love transforms boyband-y platitudes – “my body won’t feel nothing until my skin touches you” – into lyrics with real jeopardy, sharpened by the threat of looming societal collapse. Max Potential, a big 80s synth-rock number, co-opts corporate language to marvel at the pain of heartbreak, treating it as a fluorescent sign of life. Often Brown sings with such wide-mouthed, full-hearted commitment that he could be laughing or crying, but single Baby Baby is witty and aloof, with casual talk-singing and a surfy guitar line as he calls for a global strike to “make the gravy train stop”. Continue reading…