When’s the last time you fell in love? Like truly felt in love. The kind of love that couldn’t easily be contained. What did it sound like? We have a tendency to quantify these kinds of thoughts and feelings like butterflies in the stomach, or like suddenly everything felt and sounded clear, but how many of us have ever truly heard the musical sounds of what it’s like to fall in love? If you’re Robert Minott, you might have come very close with the release of his latest single, “Can’t Hold Back”. A sweeping love letter to love itself, Minott has crafted the perfect Jamaican pop hit that will go down as a major fan favorite for many years to come. It’s not your traditional love ballad in a way that feels groggy or slow either, this track is pumped filled with energy from the first notes and never lets up.
There is genuinely never a moment for a low, and that might be a slight detriment just to give some breathing room for the listener, but given how it’s about the infectious bubbly almost overwhelming feeling of when you fall in love, it’s perfectly appropriate here and executed miraculously. I really can’t undersell just how potent this song is and how it almost captures the feeling of vacation (to say nothing of its island roots would do a disservice to the song) in an almost late-night kind of way with the love of your life.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/cant-hold-back-feat-mr-lexx-single/1562815140?i=1562815141&ign-gact=3&ls=1
Lyrically it’s very straightforward in the way it sees Minott thinking about someone who he wants to be his and only his and wants to know that he is their only back. It’s a piece that’s dripping with mood and honesty and a certain level of vulnerability. There’s even a level of uncertainty that he’ll be met with the same emotions that he projects onto this person now. It’s truly powerful and relatable stuff and even captures that kind of “high school crush” energy that often has this sincerity behind it that will feel nostalgic for young and old listeners alike.
Normally, I’m not the biggest fan of Jamaican music as a lot of it sounds like music meant for people on a cruise, but that’s only because I wasn’t very well versed in the genre until listening to this, and even if it wasn’t for this write-up, the way that Minott utilizes the trappings of the genre that come to his culture authentically would be more than enough for me to want to dive in and learn more about this genre’s storied history that goes well beyond the ditties of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. Minott comes from a lineage of Jamaican music royalty, him being the nephew of the late Sugar Minott, and I know that both when he was alive and a decade after his unfortunate passing, Sugar would be deeply proud of the work that Robert has done leading up until this point. It’s catchy, effective, incredibly well-produced, and the kind of song you’ll revisit again and again.
Jodi Marxbury
The music of Robert Minott has been heard all over the world in partnership with the radio plugging services offered by Musik and Film Radio Promotions Division. Learn more https://musikandfilm.com